Over the Starlight
by A Universe Unwritten
Summary: Azusa Nakano is an Initiate at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Throughout her life, she has been ridiculed, harassed, and shunned because of what she could never control. The circumstances of her birth. Can Azusa learn to overcome feelings of self-loathing and hatred with some help from friends? Will Azusa be able to accept new emotions, both for herself and for someone she admires?
1. Prologue

This is a diary I'm writing for my own sake. I can't keep these memories bottled up in my head anymore. The council suggested I write down everything I remember so I can discuss it with them at a later date. I am keeping the first-page blank, for now at least. I guess I should start with my child-hood, and the feelings that it left me with.

 ***.*.***

I often wonder what happened to my parents. No, I don't wonder if they're dead, or having a good life without me. I wonder about whether or not they are rotting in prison like the scum they are. All my life, they abused, mistreated, and destroyed any relationships I made, purely because of the circumstances of my birth.

I am Azusa Nakano, and I am a monster.

I'm rare. Technically, I shouldn't be able to exist, but here I am, existing. I'm a cross breed, a half-caste, whatever you want to call it, but I'm still a monster. Togrutans and Humans were not meant to breed, but the fools that are my parents thought they could make it work. They couldn't make it work.

My father, who was a wealthy man in charge of a huge mining group that used Togruta slaves for manual labor, met my mother one unfortunate day. My mother was one of those slaves, but she was given a choice. My father offered my mother to marry him, and to live a life of luxury, or to starve in the mines. You'll never guess what she picked. My mother was soon corrupted by power, and became obsessed with ruling over her own people, her own family, which impressed my father, extremely. 2 years into their marriage, I came along, a horribly disfigured Togruta half-caste, with no Montrals, sickeningly pale orange skin, and barely any facial markings.

My parents were disgusted, but they had to keep me by law. The law, however, didn't say they had to treat me like a person. So they didn't. They starved me, paraded me around like a pet, not a daughter. Humans and Togrutans looked at me with disgust, yelled horrible things at me, beat me and harassed me. I was always scared, I had no reason to continue living, I was just a grotesque trophy for two psychopaths that called themselves my parents...

 ***.*.***

I still remember the day my life changed forever.

I was only 5 years old when a strange, triangular ship descended into my homeworld's atmosphere. My parents naturally wanted to meet the stranger and convince them to leave their illegal slave operation alone. The stranger wore long, brown, flowing robes, and a protective mask of some kind. I cannot remember much of the conversation he had with my parents but I vividly remember him asking if he could speak to me.

"Young Togruta, what is your name?"

It was the first time I had ever been spoken to in a polite manner. Even though we just met, I could tell he was someone who cared about me - someone who saw me as a person and not as an object.

"A-Azusa, N-Nakano" I stuttered. This was my first conversation in months. I could barely remember how to talk.

"You have a great gift Azusa. Would you like to learn how to unlock it?" the stranger asked me. I nodded in return.

 _A great gift!_ I had thought. _Was it possible that I had some worth after all?_

The strange man turned to my parents. "I am taking young Azusa here to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. You have no say in the matter, she will be safe there."

My father seemed shocked, but not altogether unhappy with the stranger's announcement.

"No, please," my father said. "Take her. We do not wish to have this… this…" He seemed to stumble on what word to use but eventually settled on something. " _Burden!_ Yes. We do not wish to have this burden on our livelihoods any longer"

It wasn't the harshest of things he has called me but somehow it stung all the same.

The stranger regarded my father with a blank stare. There was not a hint of emotion on his face but I could feel it, deep down I knew - the stranger was furious.

"Very well," said the stranger, his voice level and calm. He offered his hand towards me. "Come with me, little Azusa." Even as he addressed me, his gaze remained trained on my father.

With a small measure of reluctance, I took his outstretched hand. As he walked me to his ship, I couldn't help but look back on my parents. They had already turned away. I turned away as well...

I was leaving my old home. I was going to a faraway planet. I was getting a new life. From then on, everything would be different…

 ***.*.***

After six months at the temple, I had started to grow hair. This was an anomaly amongst my kind as Togrutans cannot grow any hair. To be a half-caste that could was certainly something special. I decided to grow it out into twin-tails, to represent the Montrals I could never grow.

After another six months, one could say I finally came out of my shell. I did have to take lessons, however. I had to learn the basic things that my parents didn't care to teach me such as reading, writing, and saying something other than my name. When I was confident enough at speaking, I got into contact with the Jedi Master who brought me into the temple. He was the first person in my life to ever be concerned for me, so I couldn't live with myself if I didn't thank him.

That Jedi Master's name is Plo Koon and he was one of the nicest people at the temple. I met Master Plo at least once a week so he could check up on how I was coping. After about three months of our meet ups, Master Plo introduced me to some other initiates who were about a year older than I was. They were all really nice but only two seemed to stand out to me. Their names were Ritsu Tainaka and Yui Hirasawa.

Starting that day, Ritsu and Yui started looking after me, playing with me, and caring for me. Eventually, they even moved me into their joint room. They were my closest friends. I trusted them and cared for them - which is funny as I never thought I could have such emotions because of my upbringing.

 ***.*.***

Around the time I turned ten years old, I met Mio Akiyama and Nodoka Manabe, two girls that were on a training course to become police officers for the temple. Mio and Nodoka were also really nice people and were about two years older than Ritsu and Yui. Mio and Ritsu seemed really close, an almost sisterly bond existing between them. And Nodoka seemed to look after Yui, often helping her with her temple studies. Their friendship was great.

However... I never felt like I belonged in it...

The other girls seemed to know each other really well and I just felt like an outsider. Eventually, I just stopped going to our weekly hangouts. This concerned Yui, who brought it up with Master Plo and other Jedi Masters. They seemed to think that the best course of action was to move me to my own room, so I could reflect on myself.

I hated it...

The room they gave me was isolated. Not many other rooms around it had anyone in them, let alone people my age. I felt cold and alone...

Though I suppose it _did_ give me the space to study and focus…

 ***.*.***

At age twelve, I had come to realize that, despite what Master Plo had told me when we first met, my gift wasn't that great after all. I was weak. I couldn't do nearly as many things as Ritsu or Yui. My learning was starting to stagnate.

I kept at it though. I needed to. The Jedi Order was my only chance at a future, at really living a life…

 ***.*.***

I didn't see Yui or Ritsu for nearly a year until I bumped into Yui at the library one afternoon. For some reason, she was ecstatic to see me. She started calling me 'Azunyan' - a nickname I've grown to despise, but I haven't got the courage to tell her.

After that day, I reconnected with the girls.

I also learned there was a newcomer to the group. Her name was Tsumugi Kotobuki, the daughter of the man who owned the private policing company that Mio and Nodoka were training in.

The more the merrier, I suppose…

 ***.*.***

Ever since I reconnected with Yui and the girls, I've felt, strange. It's probably nothing, but I can't figure out what this new emotion is. Something to learn along the way, I guess...

Tomorrow we're going on a field trip, down to the lower levels of Coruscant. I couldn't find the details, but I'm looking forward to it. It will be good to see Yui and Ritsu again, it's been a very long time since we last spoke. Apparently Master Plo is leading the excursion, so I can see him again too.

Tomorrow will be a good day.

 ***.*.***

I closed my journal, but not before going back and writing on the page I had left blank.

I wrote a reminder for myself, to never forget who I really am.

 _I am Azusa Nakano._

 _I am a Human-Togruta half-caste._

 _I am someone with a gift._

 _I am a Jedi in training._

 _And..._

 _I am a monster..._


	2. Chapter I: To be a Jedi

Azusa woke up to the sound of her alarm blaring. It was early, really early; she wanted to fit in some training before today's excursion beyond the temple grounds. Turning off her alarm with one wave of her hand, she got up and got dressed, preparing for the long day ahead.

 _It's always so quiet in this wing of the temple…_ Azusa thought to herself as she left her room. She began navigating her way through the corridors to find the sparring room.

 _I hope nobody is in here; I don't want to embarrass myself while I practice my techniques…_

Azusa entered the room, which was a large and oval shaped. It was maybe half the size of the gymnasium that she had previously used to train in, but it was so much more practical. The walls were lined with platforms, a few pillars in the center that could extend and retract upon demand, along with several holes in the wall which housed training droids, used for more intense scenarios.

Azusa had a pre-programed routine that another Jedi had helped her set up, many years ago. She had gone and upgraded the difficulty since then, of course. Loading her card into the nearby terminal, the room set itself up to Azusa's specifications.

 _Alright_ , _I can do this_. Azusa thought to herself, retrieving a training lightsaber from a nearby rack and getting into a fighting stance.

The routine started with a pair of training droids coming from either side of the room, firing stun shots at Azusa. She deflected these shots with a bit of effort, getting scraped on the arm by one poorly dodged shot.

 _Come on, focus!_ Azusa thought to herself, frustrated at screwing up so early.

The pillars started to move, Azusa sprung up onto a nearby one and started leaping across platforms and pillars to the next section of the routine. Once at the top, she saw two dueling droids activate and drop down from the ceiling. They were both carrying training lightsabers. Azusa remembered that she had programmed the droids not to attack at the same time. She wasn't nearly as talented as Yui was, and couldn't defend from multiple strikes in a second. The first droid swung down, Azusa was distracted and barely rolled out of the way in time.

 _FOCUS_. Azusa screamed mentally at herself, becoming increasingly infuriated. _Why am I thinking about Yui now?! Why?!_

Azusa sliced up, 'severing' one of the droid's arms, before rolling back to regain composure

 _Thank the force that these things were designed to fall apart on contact, I don't know what I'd have to tell Master Plo if I broke one for real._ Azusa thought, before regaining her composure.

 _Stop this! You can't think like this in a real fight, you'll be defeated, or worse!_

The second droid advanced, swinging its lightsaber at her legs. Azusa jumped over the droid, finishing it off with a quick backwards slash to the torso.

 _Better, but stay focused_.

The next part was the part Azusa could never get right. Azusa had to land on the ground safely as the pillars and platforms retracted, dodging any obstacles along the way.

 _Ok, so today the 'safe' part of the floor is dead center, should be easy, right?_ Azusa thought, before leaping onto the next platform. She prepared to leap onto a platform on the other side of the room. Azusa never made the landing, tumbling down onto the platform just below it, her feet barely touching its surface.

 _By the force, how did I manage this?!_ Azusa looked around frantically to see what had happened, then she realized where the pain of being stuck was coming from. _I've gotten my hair stuck, haven't I_?

It only took a quick shake of her head to confirm, that yes, one of her twin tails had gotten caught in between the platform and the retracting mechanism.

 _Help!_ she screamed wordlessly, mostly to reassure herself. Nobody was coming, she was alone. Just like always.

 _Shit, I've got, what, 30 seconds to get out of this? Before I'm hanging on with just my hair…_ Azusa looked around frantically, but could see no way out of her current predicament

 _'_ _Look with your mind, not your eyes…'_ said a strange voice, sounding like it came from thin air.

 _That's what Master Yoda had taught us_. Azusa recalled, thinking back to her classes when she first came to the temple.

 _'_ _Use the force_ ….' The voice of Master Plo echoed in her ears.

 _Ok, I get it; I'll do it your way_.

Azusa closed her eyes, feeling the area around her, searching for a switch, an emergency stop, something.

 _There!_ Azusa noticed a switch; maybe she could throw her hilt at it to turn it off? She started getting ready to throw, but the platform stopped supporting her weight.

"No!" She screamed in anguish, dropping her lightsaber and struggling to remain conscious. It was agonizing; it felt as if her head would be pulled off from her body. Azusa flailed for something to hold onto, but to no avail.

 _This is how it ends? No, I mustn't give up, not now!_

Azusa vaguely registered the door opening before losing conscious.

 ***.*.***

"Azunyan? Can you hear me? Azunyan?" A concerned voice spoke up, snapping her out of the darkness that previously consumed her mind.

 _Y-Yui? What is she doing here… Am I, lying in her lap? It's so warm, and soft…_

"Azunyan. Wake up!" The brunette yelled, sounding worried.

"Y-Yui?" Azusa said, coming to.

"Yes! It's me! Oh, Azunyan!" Yui squealed in delight, before enveloping the small Togruta in a hug.  
"I thought I'd lost you!"

"Wh-what happened…" Azusa asked, puzzled and still trying to piece everything together.

"Well Azunyan, I thought I heard you cry for help, I _was_ asleep, but then your voice woke me up, and I ran here!" Yui said, seemingly a little confused.  
"When I got here, I saw you hanging by your hair, so I turned the platforms back on, climbed up there, and saved you!"

The brunette was a little concerned; Azusa could tell she was unsure about what had actually happened.

 _Is it possible I reached out to her with the force? No, it couldn't be that, I'm not strong enough to do anything like that. She must have been dreaming about me, like the weirdo she is..._

"Th-thank you, Yui." Azusa said, under her breath, feeling a little bit embarrassed.

The door opened, Master Plo Koon entered the room with Ritsu in tow. Despite his protective mask, concern was clearly etched on his face.

"Little Azusa, are you hurt?" He spoke, his deep and comforting voice giving the Togruta girl some relief.

"I, I had an accident, its ok, I'm ok now…" Azusa said, hastily sitting up and getting out of Yui's lap to avoid embarrassment, turning her back to everyone.

"Azusa, I was worried" Ritsu spoke up from behind Master Plo.  
"I didn't know why, but when Yui left the room in such a rush, it scared me to no end, I was concerned Azusa! I ran to get to Master Plo to make sure you were ok."

"Ricchan! You're a genius!" Yelped Yui, seemingly excited by Ritsu's comment

"Padawan Yui, does this mean you didn't consider the possibility you might have needed help?" Asked Master Plo, sounding genuinely curious

 _She's going to make a fool of herself, isn't she?_ Azusa mused to herself, turning around to watch the potential disaster

"Hehehe, well, not really…" Yui said, scratching the back of her head.  
"I was too concerned about my Azunyan!"

Azusa felt a surge of red make its way to her cheeks. _Thank the maker that my skin is orange, I don't know how embarrassed I'd be if they could see me blushing…_

"Is that so, Padawan Yui…" Asked Master Plo, now more concerned than curious.

"Yes!" Yui responded, all too cheerfully

You could hear Master Plo audibly sigh as he turned to leave the room

"Very well," He muttered. "I expect to see all three of you in the temple hangar in 30 minutes or the excursion will leave without you." He turned to face Azusa. "Please, do take better care of yourself, little Azusa".

 _I wish I could be more reliable, it seems like I can't do anything without someone coming to help me… I wish that I could improve, and stop being so useless…_

"I-I will, Master Plo." Azusa said, a little embarrassed that after all this time, he still genuinely cared for her.

"Azunyan, are you ok? Come on, we got to get you checked up so we can go on the excursion!" Said Yui, cheerful as always, she helped the small twin tailed girl to her feet, partially carrying her and helping her walk.

 _What's your secret Yui, how do you do it?_ _How can you be so cheerful and happy, no matter what?_

"Come on guys, I already let the medical droids know that we were coming, so let's pick up the pace, ok?" Ritsu announced, flashing a smile Azusa's way

"Oh! Ricchan! You're so helpful!" Yui said excitedly, nearly dropping Azusa to give Ritsu a hug

"YUI! DON'T DROP AZUSA!" Ritsu yelled, sliding over to Azusa just in time to stop her head from hitting the floor.

"OH! I'm Sorry, Azunyan!" Yui said, without a care in the world, as she continued to walk Azusa to the medical bay.

 _These two idiots, why do they care for me? Why bother?_ Azusa mused to herself. _At any rate, I'm grateful for their company… It feels nice to not be lonely for once…_

 _Maybe, just maybe, my life_ _ **is**_ _worth something._


	3. Chapter II: Trial by Fire

Azusa stumbled into the medical bay with the help of Yui. Ritsu had already gone ahead to get a medical droid's attention. The medical bay was a large, mostly rectangular room, with a series of beds off to the right, and on the left, large tanks of the glowing blue wonder-drug Bacta sat waiting for anyone who might need it. Yui sat Azusa down on a nearby bed, and held her caringly in her arms until the med droid came around. Azusa wished the droid could have taken longer.

"Y-Yui…" Azusa said, speaking softly.

"Yes? What is it Azunyan?" Yui asked, concerned for the small Togruta.

"You can let me go now."

"Aww, ok Azunyan."

Azusa sat up, waiting for the med droid to begin its examination. Its scanners ran over her limbs, her torso, and her head, checking to make sure she had no internal bleeding or broken bones. The droid withdrew its scanners.

"Miss Nakano, the analysis indicates that, physically, you are well." The droid spoke, in a monochromatic tone. "However, mentally, I cannot determine accurately. Your brain waves indicated that you are bothered, so I have written a note for you two see me again soon, where we can do a more in depth analysis of your head to make sure everything is working"

"O-ok, I can do that…" Azusa said, a little unnerved that a droid could tell more about her than she could.

"Very good." the droid said, somehow coming across as pleased at her answer. "I will also be giving you a dose of painkillers to numb the throbbing in your head. I must warn you beforehand, that you will feel a little woozy for about half an hour. Do you consent to the painkillers?"

"Yeah, I guess…" Azusa said, rubbing her arm in preparation.

"You, Miss Hirasawa, do you promise to keep Miss Nakano out of trouble until the side effects of the painkillers have worn off?" The droid questioned Yui.

"Yup, I can do that! Anything for my Azunyan!" Yui beamed upwards at the machine.

 _Why couldn't I have a reasonable person to look after me, like Nodoka, or Mio?_ Azusa mused to herself, although not entirely bothered by Yui's company.

"Very well, I will inject the painkillers momentarily." The med droid announced, turning around to find the correct dosage of painkillers.

"Azunyan." Yui said, getting Azusa's attention.

"What is it Yui?" Azusa said, a little curious at the older girl's intentions.

"Hold my hand, it will help you calm down when the doc puts the needle in!" Yui said with her signature smile plastered across her face.

Azusa could feel the redness rising to her cheeks.

"O-ok, i-if it will help…" the small Togruta girl stuttered.

The medical droid returned with the syringe, and Azusa's heart rate doubled.

 _I don't like needles, why does everything have to be needles!_ Azusa thought to herself, becoming increasingly more uncomfortable each second. Yui noticed this, and immediately attempted to calm Azusa down.

"Azunyan, it's ok! Just close your eyes and relax…" Yui said, calmly and gently.

As if in a trance, Azusa closed her eyes, and almost instantly felt a wave of warmth and happiness radiate up from the hand Yui was holding.

 _Is, is Yui doing something to me? No, I'm imagining it…_ Azusa thought to herself, starting to feel groggy.

"It is over now Miss Nakano, you are free to leave at any time. Have a nice day." The medical droid said, snapping Azusa out of her trance.

Yui and Ritsu helped Azusa walk out of the medical bay. By the time they had navigated the tall, exquisite halls of the temple and gotten to the hangar, Azusa was mostly able to walk by herself. Entering the temple's hangar, Azusa was surprised to see that there wasn't any transports waiting, rather, there were 7 speeder bikes.

 _Seven speeder bikes? Those can't be for us, can they?_ Azusa thought to herself. _There are 12 people in our class, are people getting left behind?_

"You're late girls." Boomed the voice of Master Plo, still seemingly concerned about Azusa since her fall earlier that morning.

"Yeah, sorry about that guys!" The ever so cheerful Yui announced. "You see, Azunyan here fell off th-"

"WHY DO I HAVE TO KEEP TELLING YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT?!" Azusa interrupted, glaring at the older girl.

"Hehe, yeah, sorry Azuny-" Yui said before stopping herself, seemingly realising that she had hurt Azusa's feelings.

Azusa walked over to Master Plo Koon and stood by his side, Azusa knew that if he could give her a hug right now, he would. She had been through alot this morning.

"Now that the girls are here, I would like everyone to pair up. I'm sorry Azusa, but in the interest of your safety, you will be paired up with Yui" Plo declared, getting an audible groan from Azusa. "As annoying as she can be," the Jedi Master shot a look of frustration at the brunette, "she has your best interests at heart, and I know that you know that."

 _I really don't want to admit it, but he is right. Yui does have my best interests at heart…_ Azusa thought, before giving a small nod of approval to the Jedi Master's statement.

The other classmates spent the next minute figuring out who would go with whom. Most people in the class had at least 1 close friend, but not Ritsu, who was only close with Yui and Azusa. Ritsu knew, and for the most part, liked everyone in the class, the class also knew, and mostly liked Ritsu back. However, Ritsu was nobody's first pick to be paired up with, which disappointed the energetic girl a little bit.

"Ritsu" a handsome voice spoke up, getting the tomboy's attention.

"Oh, hey man! Taaron Ka, right?" Ritsu said, walking up to the boy and greeting him with some secret handshake. The boy was dressed well, in dark brown robes, closely fit to his appearance, a stark contrast to Ritsu's rather, odd, outfit, consisting of a small, lightweight shirt with an exposed midriff, and a pair of robust, yet manoeuvrable pants.

"Guess we're paired up today, hey Ritsu?" Taaron said, a warm smile on his face, matching Ritsu's.

"Yeah, looks like everyone's paired up already. This should be fun!" Ritsu said, playfully elbowing the boy in the side. Azusa couldn't understand why Ritsu thought Taaron was such a great person, Taaron would never give Azusa the time of day. _I don't know why, but Taaron despises me, I can feel it, he doesn't trust me either._ Azusa said, a little annoyed that her abilities would only pick up on people's negative emotions towards her, and no positive ones. _Yeah, in order for me to sense positive emotions about me, there would have to_ _ **be**_ _positive emotions about me in the first place._

"I'm glad you all sorted that out yourselves." Master Plo spoke up, settling the class down. "Today, we are venturing down to the lower levels of Coruscant for experience outside of the temple. Because of this, you will all be taking a training lightsaber with you, which you will grab shortly." As the Jedi Master said this, he gestured to a decently sized supply crate with roughly 20 trainee lightsabers.

Everyone looked toward the box before redirecting their attention to the wise Master.

 _I wonder why we need lightsabers, is it really that dangerous down there?_ Azusa wondered to herself, not wanting to voice her opinions.

"You and your partner will be sharing a speeder bike, if anything happens, trust your instincts, and activate your homing beacon as soon as possible." He instructed, gesturing to a button on the center of the speeder's control panel. "We will also have a small accompaniment of Clone Troopers, who will be leading trainees of the Temple's policing program. Try not to get in their way, they have their own work to do, but if you need help, contact them immediately."

As Plo Koon was saying this, a Gunship landed and opened its doors. Azusa could see maybe 6 trainees, and 4 clone troopers.

 _Is that, Mio and Nodoka?_ Azusa said, trying to get a better view of the Gunship's crew, but couldn't see due to the glare of the sun rising over Coruscant.

"Mio! Nodoka!" Yui called out, waving her arms attempting to get their attention, before getting told to quiet down by Master Plo.

 _Well that confirms my suspicions…_ Azusa said, although she had to stifle a giggle at Yui's antics.

"You may see some confronting stuff out there. There will be homeless people and beggars. You will see lowlifes such as thieves, criminals, thugs, and other scum out there. But you have no reason to fear them, just as they have no reason to fear you." The Jedi lectured, getting everyone's attention. "Now, does anyone have any questions?"

Yui's hand shot up almost immediately.

 _Oh no, here we go…_ thought Azusa, expecting more of the older girl's antics.

"Master Plo, earlier, Azunyan was wondering…" Yui began

 _Wait, what?! I never said anything!_ Azusa said, panicking and sending a concerned look at Yui, but she ignored her.

"Why do we need lightsabers? Is it _actually_ dangerous down there?" the older girl finished, sounding like a confused child.

 _How did she know that?! I didn't tell her, did I?_ Azusa wondered, deeply troubled as to how Yui knew this.

"You should face no problems down there, but as a precautionary measure, I would much rather everyone had one on them." Master Plo answered, before gesturing to the crates. "If there are no other questions, you may go and select your lightsabers. Greens are on the left, Blues are on the right, for those who are pedantic about colors."

The class moved to select their blades, Azusa selected a Green blade, Yui selected a Blue one, while Ritsu picked up one of each.

"Why did you pick two, Ritsu?" Yui asked, ever so curious

"Oh, it's because I fight with two, Yui! Did you honestly forget?" Ritsu said, seemingly a little peeved

"Ah, yeah, that's right! Hehe" Yui chuckled, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

Ritsu thumbed one lightsaber on, and turned the dial to shorten the length of the blade, before doing so with the other.

 _I guess she finds it easier to use two slightly shorter blades over one longer one, but this is bothering me… Why didn't she compare their lengths? One is bigger than the other… I guess she doesn't care that much after all…_ Azusa wondered, slightly infuriated at Ritsu's lack of measurements.

Everyone walked over to a speeder, and started to determine who would be driving first, and who would drive on the way back. Thankfully, the speeders were 100% identical, so there were no arguments about who wanted what speeder.

"Azunyan, I'll drive!" Yui declared happily

"NO!" Azusa told her off. "I'm driving, that is that." The twin-tailed girl declared before straddling the speeder.

"Azunyan, the med droid said I had to look after you!" Yui said, in protest

"You are, I don't trust you, so I'm driving the bike. That's how you're helping me right now." Azusa said, flatly.

"You're so cold Azunyan…" Yui said, hopping onto the back of the speeder and wrapping her arms around Azusa.

"Yui, could you please hold onto the handrails, and not me?" Azusa said, slightly annoyed, a blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"But Azunyannnn" Yui pouted

 _Ugh, playing the little girl card, really? Don't throw a tantrum…_ Azusa thought, becoming increasingly annoyed at the older girl and her lack of self-respect.

"FINE! But just this once" Azusa conceded, anything to make her whining stop.

"Thank you Azunyan!" Yui said, suddenly happy again.

"Alright everyone, start your speeders, and follow me!" Master Plo yelled, starting to move down the Temple Hangar's runway. Azusa noticed the gunship close its doors in preparation to follow along. The twin-tailed Togruta gunned the engine, and set off with her fellow Jedi.

 _It's time to experience what outside the Temple is like._ Azusa thought to herself, feeling excited.

 ***.*.***

The city-planet of Coruscant was truly a sight to behold. The sun gleamed off the immense skyscrapers that marked the city's skyline, and the stream of passing ships and speeders was something to be in awe of. Azusa had never seen anything so beautiful, and so full of life, yet it looked lifeless. The stainless steel and glamorous windows was so artificial, it was blatant. _The planet died, and in its place, we built a glimmering city…_ Azusa thought, almost dumbfounded by the idea that a planet made out of city would be better for its inhabitants than a regular planet, dotted with cities.

They were heading down to one of the lower levels, and if Azusa was remembering correctly, the level 1313 in particular. Level 1313 was notorious for bounty hunters, assassins, thieves, and other scum of the galaxy. Coruscant security avoided the level, unless they absolutely couldn't afford to avoid it, making the area extremely unsafe.

 _Makes me glad we have a Gunship escort…_ Azusa thought to herself as she sped through a large street with her fellow Jedi. Azusa looked down, curious to how far away the nearest platforms were. _There, there aren't any platforms below us, not for hundreds of metres… What if I lost control! I could die! Yui could die!_ Her attention turned to the brunette sitting behind her, who was fast asleep. _Of course, you're asleep, but you wouldn't let go of me first…_ Azusa thought to herself, a little peeved, but not entirely bothered by the brunette's warm embrace.

A loud explosion shattered her eardrums. Azusa turned back just in time to dodge the derbies of a falling speeder, the engines of which had been destroyed. _That, that was one of ours!_ Azusa thought, panicking.

"Yui! Wake up!" Azusa screamed to the older brunette, kicking the speeder into a dive to save her fellow students.

"Azunyan! What's going on?!" Yui exclaimed, startled.

"No time! Just be ready to take over the speeder!"

"O-ok, Azunyan! I'm ready to help!"

Azusa was almost alongside the other speeder. She couldn't tell who the occupants of the speeder were; the smoke erupting from the destroyed engine was too thick. Another explosion echoed far above, Azusa looked up to see another speeder falling. _This wasn't an accident, this, it's, it's an attack!_ Azusa realized, a sickening feeling developing in the pit of her stomach. _What kind of sick bastard, attacks a group of kids?!_ Azusa thought, anger building up inside of her.

Azusa stood up, and moved onto the front of the bike, balancing on its thin casing. She noticed Yui slide up and resume control of the speeder, keeping it balanced and beside the falling speeder. _Good work, Yui_. Azusa thought, feeling a small amount of pride. _She caught onto what's happening…_

With one push, Azusa cleared most of the smoke away, long enough to see the occupants. _Ritsu and Taaron?! I, I have to help them!_ She thought, her heartbeat quickening. _But, Taaron, he, he despises me!_ Azusa said, a pang of hatred hitting her. _It would be so easy, to, forget him…_ Azusa stopped herself there. She shouldn't think like this. No life is worth less than anyone else's. _Except for mine, remember?_ Azusa remembered, she could never forget. Azusa noticed Taaron coming to, before passing out again due to the smoke. There was definitely a look of hatred in his eyes.

 _Come on, focus! Push those feelings aside, you can hate yourself later! Right now, we- I mean, you, need to save Ritsu and Taaron._ Azusa heard a voice, familiar, but she couldn't tell who it belonged to. _Wait, I didn't think that, that wasn't my voice, and what was that silly accent? Never mind, whoever's voice that was, they're right_. Azusa thought, agreeing with the mental intruder's words.

She braced to jump, guiding her leap with the force. Azusa missed the speeder, instead barely grabbing hold of one of the speeders stabilisers. _It's not like it's using them right now anyway_. She thought, as she used every bit of strength to pull herself on top of the speeder. _I have got to get better at jumping._ She mentally reminded herself.

 _Right, now I have to save these guys… but, how?_ Azusa thought, realising she didn't have a plan. _Shitshitshitshitshit SHIT. It's ok, just, think. You can do this._ She looked down, and saw that platforms were rapidly approaching. _Crap! They weren't that close a minute ago! Ok. I'm going to have to grab them, and jump just before we land… I am so not getting out of this in one piece._

"Azunyan! Hurry up!" Yui yelled at her, fear in her voice

"Yui! Get out of here; I'm going to have to jump just before impact! Get Master Plo, or one of the clone troopers! Don't you dare come after us alone!" Azusa yelled back, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. _Stop this. You're not going to die. You're a Jedi. You can do this… No, no I can't, I can't…_

"Azunyan, I will come for you!" Yui yelled, pulling the speeder up and dropping from Azusa's side instantly. She was alone. This was it. The tears stung her eyes. She wrapped one arm around Ritsu's torso, and another around Taaron's arm. _Sorry Taaron, you're too muscular, I can't get my arm around you… I hope this doesn't hurt._ Azusa looked down. _Shit, I've got, what, maybe 30 seconds before impact? Great, just brilliant, I get to have all the fun…_

Azusa jumped, barely able to become airborne with the weight of two bodies dragging her down, but by some miracle of the force, Azusa did it. The landing however, didn't go so well.

Azusa rolled over onto her back to give Ritsu and Taaron the greatest chance of survival, taking the brunt of the fall herself, which nearly knocked her out instantly. Azusa saw Taaron and Ritsu bounce along the platform before skidding to a stop just a meter or two away from the edge, Azusa felt a feeling of relief that they were still in once piece. The explosion of the speeder crashing into the platform threw Azusa's limp body into a nearby wall, knocking her out for good.

 ***.*.***

Yui watched as a speeder descended to the scene of the crash site, its crew telling onlookers that everything would be ok, they have it from here. The occupants weren't dressed in Clone Trooper armour however, nor were they dressed in the uniforms of the Coruscant guard. They were all too old to be the trainees from the temple guard too. She watched as two members of the speeder's crew loaded Ritsu and Taaron into the speeder, while the other four walked over and stood around Azusa. Yui jumped down for a closer look, she could hear them talking.

"What about this one boss? We grabbing her too?" A rather high pitched male voice asked

"She appears to be Togrutan, but, the hair…" the deep voice of their leader responded, contemplating. "She may be a half-caste, in which case, she's worth a lot to us."

"She's a Jedi too, so that drives her price up even more!" An excited female voice announced.

"Yeah, yeah we get it, keep it down Monica" the leader responded.

Yui had heard enough. She walked towards the high pitched male, who on closer inspection, appeared to be a green skinned bug-like humanoid called a Rodian. Yui jumped into the air, and kicked him as hard as she could in the back of the head.

"Wha-." The Rodian yelped, before falling limp to the ground.

"Who the fuck are you?!" the girl named Monica yelled at her, drawing a knife.

"No idea, but we'll take her too. Grab her Rob" the leader said, pointing to the fourth member of their gang, a large and silent Gamorrean.

The green pig faced creature stomped up to Yui, grabbing one of her arms.

"Get off of me!" Yui yelled, igniting her lightsaber into her attacker's arm, sending a massive shock through the brute's body and stunning him. The Gamorrean squealed in pain and let go of Yui's arm.

Yui leapt over the cowardly pig and landed in front of Azusa, assuming a protective stance.

"You're not going to touch her. She's mine."

"Too bad for you, little girl." The leader declared. "My name is Jace, leader of the 1313 level crime syndicate, and that girl is my next sell. Remember my name, for it will be the last one you ever hear".

Jace pulled a large blaster rifle off of his back, and levelled it at the brunette girl's head.

"Sorry, it's nothing personal, just business." Jace said, aiming down his sights.

Yui stood her ground. She had to defend Azunyan. Until her very last breath. She made a promise. Not to the medical droid, but to herself. Azunyan was hers. She wasn't going to lose that. Not today, not ever.

"You've got nerve kid, you would have made a brilliant member of our gang" Monica said, impressed by Yui. "You're kinda cute too… Boss, you sure I can't keep this one for myself?"

"Positive, Monica. Not after what happened to the last one" Jace said with a sigh

"Oh. Well, kill her I guess. It was nice to meet you kid!" Monica waved nonchalantly before turning her attention to Rob.

Yui wasn't scared though; she saw a pair of gunships descending, along with Master Plo's speeder bike.

"It was nice to meet you too!" She said cheerfully to Monica, without dropping her guard.

"NOW!" a voice boomed from above. Yui saw a seemingly endless amount of Clone Troopers decked out in white armour with red markings pour out of the gunships, while Master Plo jumped down with his lightsaber ignited, landing in front of Jace and severing the blaster rifle in his hands. The clones levelled their blasters at the other gang members and any potential trouble makers in the crowd.

"Good work Padawan Yui, you may have just saved several lives today." Master Plo said, aiming his blade at Jace's neck.

"General, we, can't find the others." A clone reported, disappointment leaked from his voice.

"What do you mean trooper?" Plo Koon said, urgency radiating off of him like a roaring flame.

"I'm sorry sir, I mean just that. Wherever the others are, they're gone"

"Padawan Yui, how many people were there here?" Plo directed his attention to Yui, shutting off his lightsaber and approaching, leaving Jace to be cuffed by the clones.

"Well, there was Azunyan, and Taaron, and Ritsu!" Yui said, proud at herself for remembering who was at the crash site.

"Blast!" Plo muttered under his breath. "Troopers! Padawans Beron, Judai, Liz and Mei are still unaccounted for, we have no idea who saw them last. Padawans Ritsu and Taaron were last seen here, but they are still missing." He yelled, before barking orders for another search party to go out looking for them. Yui didn't care, Azunyan was safe.

She had done well.

 ***.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.***

 **A/N:** Holy crap this was a long one. Longer than the Prologue and Chapter One combined, actually.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter, I think I got to touch a little bit on Yui and Azusa's relationship, while also touching on Azusa's insecurities and easily broken trust, such as when Yui asked Plo Koon the exact question Azusa was thinking to herself, which causes Azusa to not trust Yui to drive the bike, because she thinks that Yui is reading her mind purely for the sake of reading it.

I liked dropping some hints as to what Yui's force powers are, which I'm not going to say right now, but hopefully it won't be too surprising when they are revealed later.

Taaron is an interesting character, and we will be seeing more of him in the future, when he eventually wanders back into the story. (Before anyone asks, Taaron is not a self insert. Taaron is vastly different to me in almost every way, and I do not aspire to be like him. Period.)

It was also heaps of fun to go a little into the relationship between Azusa and Plo, who Azusa seems to view as the father she never had. No, Azusa's biological father does not count, for obvious reasons.

Annnyyyyyyway, before I ramble on for too long, I just want to say thank you for reading this, it means a lot. Please, review this, constructive and heck, even harsh criticism is appreciated. I'm not going to get any better without it.

I'll end this Author's Note here! :]


	4. Chapter III: Love Over Gold

Yui was sitting on a rather uncomfortable chair, half asleep, but still keeping a watchful eye on a certain Togruta. _It's been three days since the attack, and Azusa hasn't woken up yet._ Yui thought to herself, hoping that Azusa would wake up soon; she needed to hear it from her. _I need her to say that she is ok, if she doesn't wake up, she can't do that._

The brunette started looking around the medical bay, devoid of anything interesting going on. The room hadn't changed, the droids were still doing their menial tasks, and right now, there was nobody for Yui to talk to. _It's been three days since I've done anything even borderline productive…_ Yui thought, before sighing out of boredom. _Nobody has come to visit Azusa yet, so I've been lonely for the past three days too. But I have to be here for her, she needs me there when she wakes up!_ Yui thought to herself, determined to make the twin-tailed Togruta proud of her for once, instead of frustrated or disappointed.

Her stomach grumbled. She had also not eaten in three days; she refused to leave Azusa's side. She was starving, but sooner or later, she would have to eat. But for now, she sat, and she waited. Azusa would wake up, eventually. Yui could feel herself dozing off. _Well, a quick nap won't hurt; it's been two days since I last slept anyways. Besides, if Azusa wakes up, she'll yell at me to wake me up, I know she will._

The brunette collapsed in her chair, getting some much needed rest.

 ***.*.***

The Jedi council had called an emergency meeting. Normally emergency meetings were reserved for the war effort, for situations such as a crucial planet falling under attack and the council needed to decide which Jedi to send to lead the clones, or an important Jedi Master was in danger of being killed or captured. Today, the meeting was due to something that was much closer to home, something happening on Coruscant.

Plo Koon sat in his chair, observing other members of the Council as they entered the spherical chamber, sat on top of the highest spire of the Jedi Temple. The chamber was furnished simply, with each member having a red cushioned chair custom built to fit them, and only them. The large windows that made the walls of the chamber showed the dazzling night life of Coruscant, speeders flickering by in the distance, and illuminated buildings in the skyline. Finally, the last members of the council had entered, and the members currently off world had joined in via a holographic communication. Among the assembled members were the wise and humble Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the green, small statured Master Yoda, the insightful Ki-Adi Mundi who has an extra brain and heart, along with the second highest ranking member of the entire order, Jedi Master Mace Windu.

"We have called this meeting today to discuss something that happened here on Coruscant three days ago." Mace Windu announced, the dark-skinned and bald man sitting forward in his seat. "There was an attack on a Youngling field excursion led by fellow council member Master Plo Koon. Master Plo, would you care to inform the council of what happened?" He questioned, knowing full well the details of what happened that day.

"With all due respect, Master Windu." Plo started, if he was going to get in trouble, he would get in trouble defending his students. "They are not Younglings, not anymore. They may not be apprenticed to a Master yet, but their knowledge of the force far exceeds any Youngling here in the temple. They are Padawans." He declared, getting a visible reaction from Windu. _He disagrees, interesting. We can have differing opinions._

"The way you described what happened that morning is also a blatant and an on-purpose understatement of what really happened. It was simply not just an attack, it was a planned kidnapping. There are still 6 children missing, and we are currently interrogating the gang members we captured to find out where those children are, but so far, their lips have been sealed." Master Plo finished, explaining to any unaware council members what had happened. He got several nods of approval, in particular Obi-Wan's, one of the few Masters on the Council that Plo Koon had given his trust, and friendship to.

"Thank you Master Plo." Windu said, eerily calm despite being visibly frustrated at Plo's comment about the Padawans. "Now we must move onto the issue at hand. As Master Plo stated, there are 6 _Younglings_ missing right now. We have no idea where they are, or what their captives are doing to them. We have clone patrols searching level 1313, and several Jedi meditating in hopes of finding them through the force. Do any of the assembled Masters have a better plan?"

Obi-Wan nodded, stroking his beard in deep contemplation.

"Master Kenobi, something to say, you have?" Grand Master Yoda said, breaking the silence.

"Yes, I do have something to say." Obi-Wan spoke up, still absent-mindedly stroking his beard. "What of Azusa Nakano? I believe that if we could pull her out of her coma she may be able to assist us on finding the lost Padawans. She did after all; see the speeder up close along with the two unknown gang members. As far as I know, Padawan Yui didn't have a very good view of the speeder, or the two gang members that took Padawans Ritsu and Taaron."

Master Windu was the next to speak.

"You are correct Master Kenobi; unfortunately, we cannot pull her out of her coma, not safely. None of the healers advanced enough to heal her injuries are on Coruscant at the moment."

"May I ask, what _are_ her injuries?" A holographic voice asked, the council turned its attention to Togrutan Jedi Master Shaak Ti.

"Paralysed, she is, to what extent, we are uncertain." Master Yoda said with a grim tone in his voice.

"Pardon me, Master Yoda. But if she is paralysed, isn't our number one priority getting a healer here? The medical droids cannot heal paralysis, not with their supplies." Master Kenobi said, sounding rather alarmed at the council's lack of action

"I agree with Master Kenobi. _Why_ haven't we gotten a healer? Do I have to remind the council that Azusa is not a normal Togruta? We are still unsure about her genetics, how exactly she even _exists_. For all we know, an untreated injury of this scale could kill her!" Plo Koon said, remaining calm, but growing increasingly annoyed at the lack of concern other council members were showing.

"I'm sorry Master Plo, but we cannot risk taking healers away from the war effort." Mace Windu said, his tone unsettlingly calm.

"What?!" Obi-Wan yelled, frustration oozing from his voice. "I'm sorry, but this girl's life is worth more than this! Why aren't we treating her, why haven't we gotten a group of trainee healers to do this? We're better than this! We're supposed to be compassionate, to help those in need!"

"Master Kenobi would you please calm down" Windu said, raising his voice. "We have done everything we can."

"I disagree." Kenobi retorted. "I will assemble a group of healers and assist them through the healing process myself."

"No, you won't, we will not allow it. The very action of untrained healing could kill her." Master Windu said, keeping his cool

"And the action of not healing her could as well!" Obi-Wan yelled back, frustrated at the backwards logic being used by the High Master.

"I agree with Kenobi." Plo Koon spoke up. "We cannot allow little Azusa to suffer needlessly. If the paralysis isn't tended to immediately, the effects will become permanent, and perhaps even deadly."

"I'm sorry Master Plo, I know what this student means to you, I know that you took it upon yourself to raise her, but the council cannot, and will not allow it. That will be all." Master Windu announced. "Council adjourned."

The members of the council left the chambers, the holograms faded out, and everything was quiet. Plo and Kenobi were the last to leave, both deeply concerned for the welfare of Azusa Nakano.

"Master Plo, may I have a word with you, in private?" Kenobi asked, gesturing to a nearby turbolift.

"Certainly, Master Kenobi." Plo responded, stepping into the elevator.

Once the elevator had begun its decent, Kenobi spoke up.

"I have an idea, and you're not going to like it."

"Oh?" Plo responded, intrigued. "Go on, you have my attention."

"My Padawan Anakin lands tomorrow morning, with his Padawan Ahsoka Tano. I plan to let him know about this, and to ask him a favour."

"A favour? What do you mean, Master Kenobi?"

"I am going to ask Anakin to assemble a group of healers, including his Padawan, and to heal Azusa."

"I don't like this, but it needs to happen. Why must young Ahsoka be present?"

"We need someone who knows Togrutan anatomy better than anyone else; I see no reason why Ahsoka shouldn't be the person to fulfil that role."

"If he gets caught, or it goes wrong, Anakin could risk expulsion from the order." Plo warned, fearing that Kenobi may have lost his mind.

"They won't expel him. The Chosen One prophecy means too much to the Council, they need him under their control. You and I both know this."

"I hate to agree with you there, but it is true. Ok, organize this, but remember to make this painfully clear with Skywalker. We were never involved."

"Agreed." Obi-Wan said, just as the elevator came to a stop.

The two masters parted ways with a bow, heading off to their respective quarters.

 _Kenobi, you better be right on this one. You are the only other person that knows what that girl means to me. I am not going to lose the child I saved from her evil parents, the child who I raised to be who she is today. She is too important to me._ The Jedi Master thought to himself as he made his lonely walk down the vast corridors of the Jedi Temple.

 _That girl is like a daughter to me, I will not lose her._

 ***.*.***

Obi-Wan Kenobi entered his chambers and locked the door. He walked over to his bedside table and picked up his Hologram Projector, and sent a message to his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker.

"Anakin, when you get this, contact me immediately. I need to talk to you about something, in private. Bring your Padawan with you."

 ***.*.***

Yui woke up to the sound of footsteps. She checked on Azusa, and was surprised to notice that she had not moved at all while she had slept. Only after checking on Azusa, did Yui turn to see the source of the footsteps. Standing just inside the door was a rather tall human male dressed in black robes and a Togruta girl roughly her height and age.

"Are you Yui Hirasawa?" The man asked, his voice confident and in control.

"Yes, I am. What can I do for you?" The brunette asked, cheerful as always.

"I'm going to assume the girl on the bed is Azusa Nakano then. Oh, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Anakin Skywalker, and this" he gestured to the Togruta beside him "is my Padawan, Ahsoka Tano." There was an air of pride to him; Yui wondered if Anakin was important.

"It's nice to meet you Yui." Ahsoka said, giving Yui a slight wave.

"It's nice to meet you guys too!" Yui said, a large grin forming on her face.

"Glad to see you're excited, but unfortunately Ahsoka and I aren't here to make light-hearted conversation." Anakin spoke up, his voice going from cheery to grim in the space of a heartbeat. "I've been informed that Azusa's condition is rapidly deteriorating and that the council will not heal her out of fear. I don't stand for this, so I have come here with Ahsoka and a pair of novice healers, who are waiting outside."

"W-what is going to happen to Azunyan?" Yui said, suddenly becoming scared. _The Council is afraid of her? They're afraid of healing her? What is so dangerous about my Azunyan?_ Yui thought to herself, extremely annoyed that the Council would treat Azusa in such a manner.

"Hopefully, nothing. Ahsoka and I will guide the healers, and the effects of Azusa's paralysis will be reversed, in theory, curing her." Anakin said, masking a bit of pain in his voice. "However, we must prepare for every eventuality, if something goes wrong, Azusa must be put to sleep, forever."

"We would rather her die painlessly, as opposed to her spending her last moments suffering." Ahsoka chimed in, making Yui realise that they weren't going to kill Azusa outright.

"O-ok, but I want to help! I'm not the best healer, but I know Azunyan. I can calm her muscles; I might even be able to mend some of the damage to her." Yui said, determined to help Azusa.

"Ok Yui, I see no harm in you helping us and besides, the Force knows that we will need it." Anakin said, accepting Yui's offer. "Doc, I want you to have a lethal dose of your strongest, fastest painkillers ready to go. Do not inject it unless I tell you to. Do you understand?" Anakin said his voice deadly serious.

"I am completely in agreement with you, Master Skywalker." The droid said, strolling over to the supply room and returning with a syringe of red glowing liquid.

"Ahsoka, bring the healers in will ya?" Anakin asked, grabbing seats for the five of them.

Ahsoka walked to the door, returning with two male Jedi, almost identical except for their skin tones, one being an exotic purple and the other with a deep shade of blue.

"Yui, this is Len and Ben, they will be assisting us with the healing process." Anakin said, introducing the Jedi.

"Before you ask," started Len

"Yes, we are twins." Continued Ben

"And, yes, we are telepathically linked." Finished Len

"Wow! That's so cool!" Yui squealed, impressed by the twin Jedi.

"Ok, will everyone please take a seat, and open their minds to me." Anakin said, closing his eyes and meditating. The other Jedi followed suit, and were soon connected via the force.

 _From here on out, we will be able to talk with our minds._ Yui heard the voice of Anakin in her head. _Yui, Len, Ben, do not worry about numbing Azusa's pain, I am going to absorb any pain she feels and take it upon myself. Don't worry about me._

 _But Master, are you sure? Is that even allow-_ the voice of Ahsoka asked, before being cut off

 _Ahsoka, trust me._ Anakin said. Yui could feel Ahsoka's mind being put at ease by his words. _Is everyone ready?_ Anakin asked. A resounding yes came from everyone. _Then let us begin._

In unison, the five Jedi lifted their right hands. A mystical blue glow forming around their outstretched palms, the Jedi began reaching out towards the unconscious body of Azusa Nakano in unison. Yui could feel everyone's minds and bodies working in perfect harmony, fixing damaged nerves and muscles over the course of many hours. The group then came upon an anomaly in Azusa's spine.

 _Ahsoka, do you know what has happened here?_ Asked the disembodied voices of Ben and Len, which were in perfect sync with one another.

 _I can't tell for sure, but it seems that part of her spine has been completely shattered; I can't see any trace of the segment. Our best bet is calling the remains of that segment back to where they should be, and regrowing the bone from there. This will take a long time however._ Ahsoka responded, but she seemed unsure with her own answer.

 _You're the only one that can tell us if it will work Ahsoka; we need to know if we can go through with this._ Anakin reminded her, making it clear to Yui that nobody was really sure of what they were doing, but they had to do it. They had to do it for Azusa, nobody else will.

 _Yes Master, I think it is safe to do this, and it should work_. Ahsoka responded, sounding more confident with her answer.

 _Master Skywalker, can I lead this part? One of the things I can do really well is restoring bone._ Yui begged, thinking that she will be able to help Azusa more than the others here.

 _Go for it Yui, we'll follow you._ Anakin responded, with similar responses from the others.

Yui felt for shards of bone with the force, discovering several large chunks that had spread throughout the Togrutan girl's back, and begun the tedious process of moving them towards their rightful place. She could feel Azusa's body changing ever so slightly to accept the movement of sharp bone shards being forcibly moved through her body. Once she had gotten all the shards she could find, Yui began the lengthy process of regrowing the bone. With the help of the others, Yui could see the bone reconnecting in just a few hours.

Suddenly, Yui felt a wave of immense pain go through Azusa's body. She could hear cracking, echoing as if the sound was coming from the bottom of a deep cavern.

 _Yui, what's happening?!_ Anakin yelled, his mind racing with concern and attempting to find a solution.

 _I, I don't know! I think I've accidentally been growing the whole spine instead of that segment!_ Yui said, suddenly incredibly scared for Azusa.

 _Master, her spine is splitting!_ Ahsoka yelled, her voice sounding incredibly scared for the fellow Togrutan.

"Doc! Inject on my count!" Anakin yelled, this time not to the connected Jedi, but to the medical droid, who was waiting patiently by Azusa's side.

"Yes Master Skywalker." The droid responded, it's monotone voice incredibly devoid of any empathy for what it was about to do.

"Three!"

 _This is it. I'm going to lose her. I fucked up, and I'm going to lose my Azusa. I can't lose her, I have to protect her. I can't lose her. I have to protect her. I CAN'T LOSE HER. I_ _ **MUST**_ _PROTECT HER!_

"Two!"

Yui screamed, an immense surge of power flowing through her veins. She absorbed the other Jedi's energy into herself, severing the mental link they had established. She became a conductor for the force. Moving arms that she wasn't even sure belonged to her anymore, Yui force pushed the droid away. Yui force pushed Anakin away. Yui pushed everyone away.

"I WILL NOT LET HER DIE!" Yui screamed, her body glowing in an intense blue light, crackling with energy across the brunette's slim figure. The room started shaking; winds conjured out of thin air ruffling the hair and the robes of its occupants.

"What are you doing Padawan?! STAND DOWN!" Anakin leapt to his feet, reaching for his lightsaber.

"She isn't dying today, I won't let that happen." Yui said, her voice quiet, but laced with an eerie tone, almost otherworldly.

Yui placed her hands on Azusa's chest. The blue glow enveloped them both, growing into a blinding sphere of pure energy. _I love this girl, and I will not let her die. Not today, not ever. She is mine, and I am not going to lose her_ _ **. Ever.**_

The amount of energy radiating from Yui doubled, and then quadrupled, her emotions serving as a seemingly endless source of power. Yui could hear the sound of objects breaking, but she didn't care. With one thought, she delved her consciousness into Azusa's dying body. Yui could feel the damage being undone, the bones regrowing naturally, the blood flowing regularly. Azusa was living. Yui could also feel, tucked deep into the bottom of Azusa's unconscious mind, a steady ebb of energy. The energy felt exactly the same as the energy coursing through Yui's body. _Could it be? Could she feel the same way?_ Yui thought, before feeling her energy depleting at an alarming rate. Her work was done. She collapsed on the floor.

The last thing Yui heard before falling unconscious was the telepathic voice of Anakin.

 _You've got guts Yui, good job. Azusa would be proud._

 ***.*.***

Yui woke up to the sound of the medical bay door opening. She had been asleep on a spare bed next to Azusa's, although she had no memory of how she got there. She noticed that the room was no messier than it had been earlier, although there were some missing shelves.

"Hey Yui! Glad to see that you're awake!" Ahsoka announced, stepping into the room with a large tray in her hands. "I brought you something to eat; I heard from the med droid that he never saw you leave to eat!"

"Hehe, yeah, I was too worried about Azunyan!" Yui said, sheepishly scratching the back of her head.

Ahsoka placed the tray down and sat at the end of Yui's bed. Yui graciously chowed down on what the Togruta had bought her, she needed the nutrients.

"Hey Yui, can I ask you a question?" Ahsoka said, looking over at Azusa, still sleeping on her bed.

"Hmm? Yeah, sure!" Yui said with her mouth full of lukewarm meat.

"What's her story? Azusa's I mean. As a fellow Togruta, I _know_ that she shouldn't be able to exist, but here she is… I'm not saying that I don't _want_ her to exist, not at all! But, I know that the genes she carries shouldn't mix and produce an offspring, let alone an offspring who has traits of both of their parents"

Yui pondered for a minute before finally answering.

"I don't really know… Azusa doesn't open up about her past, but from what Master Plo would tell me, her parents were two of the worst people he had ever met, and that until he met her, she had never been treated like a person. She was a pet, she was worthless. I think she still carries that with her."

"Really?! That's horrible!" Ahsoka exclaimed, incredibly disturbed. "Azusa is a miracle, if anything; those people should have admired her! Heck, I wish I could have her beautiful hair, _I'm_ jealous, and I'm not even the kind of person who gets jealous! How could an entire group of people look at a miracle, and treat it like a lowly animal?!" Ahsoka said, her voice sounding incredibly irritated.

"Yeah, it makes me sad. It's why I try to treat her really nice, you know? I always hug her, and make her know that she's special to me. I think she needs that in her life." Yui said, still munching on her food. "I don't think she even sees herself as a Togruta. Ahsoka, I think that Azusa doesn't see herself as a person. I think that she sees herself as a monster." Yui said, sounding a little scared

"What? That's horrible! When she wakes up, I have to talk to her. I have to let her know that the Togruta that she knew growing up are _not_ an accurate representation of _our_ culture. She is a Togruta; she should accept herself as one. I am more than willing to teach her our culture, but I need to teach her to accept herself first. Will you help me Yui?"

"Uh huh! Anything to help my Azunyan!"

The girls smiled at each other, a plan was made. They were going to teach Azusa to accept herself.

 ***.*.***

Azusa woke up. The medical bay was dim, barely any lights were on. _It's gotta be night time, and there must not be any patients that need seeing to right now_. Azusa thought, deciding that this was the most acceptable answer. Azusa decided that she was going to roll over in her bed, determined to get some more sleep. _Funny, I've been asleep for, I don't know how long actually. Could have been weeks at this point. But I'm still exhausted…_

Azusa rolled over, and saw Yui sat in a chair, fast asleep, her head resting on the shoulders of a sleeping Togruta girl, maybe a year or two older than Azusa. Azusa started to feel a new emotion. Azusa had felt rage, anger, sadness and bitterness. But this new emotion, it seemed like a tidal wave of those emotions, and then more. Azusa didn't understand why she was feeling this emotion. It felt horrible. She wanted it to stop, but she couldn't. Instead, Azusa started focusing on the Togrutan girl, the details in her facial tattoos, her slim, athletic figure. Not to mention she was surely closer to Yui's age than Azusa was.

Azusa caught herself subconsciously stroking her hair, longing for the beautiful Montrals of the Togruta girl. _Does Yui see something more in her, because she is complete? Because she is better at being a Togruta than I am_? She realised she was hoping, no, she was wishing to be more like her. Her looks, her obviously superior personality, maybe then, maybe then Yui would accept her. Azusa felt her eyes stinging. _I-I'm crying? This girl, who I don't even know, I don't know her name, or what she is like, I just don't know. And yet, this girl has brought me to tears, entirely with my own thoughts…_

Azusa stopped herself there. She rolled back over, and fell asleep, her eyes still wet by tears.

 ***.*.***

"Azunyan, wake up!"

Azusa was startled awake by Yui's loud and obnoxious voice. She hated that nickname, but of course Yui didn't care. Why would Yui even bother to talk to her, it's obvious she is more interested in Mrs complete over there…

"Azunyan? Are you ok?" Yui asked, disturbed at the small girl's silence

Azusa snapped out of it. She shouldn't think like that. It's not the Jedi way. Attachment is forbidden. She must stop this. _Don't think like this._

"Yeah, I'm ok, I, sorry." Azusa managed to mumble

"Are you sure? Your eyes are red, and your cheeks have lines on them. Were you crying last night Azusa?" Yui asked, suddenly sounding serious and concerned.

 _She, she used my real name… I'm more worried if_ _ **she's**_ _ok now._

"I don't want to talk about it." The twin-tailed girl muttered under her breath.

"Ok, Azunyan! Oh, Azunyan! There's someone I want you to meet!" Yui said, her attitude taking a complete 180 and becoming light hearted and playful.

 _I don't know what I was expecting from her… Wait, someone to meet? It, it's not her, is it?_

Azusa rolled over, and saw the beautiful Togruta sitting there, smiling.

"Hey! Azusa, is it? I'm Ahsoka; it's a pleasure to meet you!" The girl stretched her hand out for a handshake. Azusa begrudgingly extended her hand and shook it.

"Azunyan, Ahsoka is here because we want to talk to you about something very important to us." Yui continued, still completely unfazed by Azusa's grumpiness.

 _Oh god, they, they aren't actually, they can't be! That, that bitch, thinking she can take Yui away from-._ She stopped herself there. _Calm down Azusa. You can do this civilly_.

"Azusa, Yui and I are worried about you." Ahsoka said, legitimate concern laced her voice.

 _Huh? That, that wasn't what I was expecting her to say…_

"Yeah, Azunyan. Ahsoka wanted to talk to you about your upbringing, if you're ok with that." Yui said, her tone becoming ever so slightly more serious.

"I really don't like talking about my past, but, ok. I guess. If it's gonna help you sleep at night Yui." Azusa said, grumpily accepting to talk to Ahsoka in such a private and personal manner.

"Great!" Ahsoka said, surprisingly cheerfully. "Tell me Azusa, do you know any of our lore? The Togrutan stories, our legends, our heroes? Did you ever learn about them?"

"No, I was never taught anything like that, you see, I'm not a Togruta-." Azusa started to say, before she was cut off by Ahsoka.

"That's where you're wrong Azusa! You can't go throughout your life believing that you don't belong to your people! I can promise you Azusa, the Togruta you grew up around, _they_ are the ones who aren't real Togruta. You're a walking miracle! The people on your home world, they were ignorant fools to shun the birth of a miracle! The people on my world, they would have lovingly nurtured you, cared for you, played with you. Our culture, _your culture,_ is nothing to be ashamed about Azusa, you are not a monster. You are a miracle."

Azusa didn't believe a word of it. Everything she had been through in her life indicated that this couldn't possibly be true.

"No, that's not true. I'm a monster."

"I guess what my friend Rex told me is true. Experience really does outrank everything. I know that is supposed to be for the battlefront, but it holds true here as well Azusa. Your life experiences are screaming at you, telling you that I'm wrong, right?"

"Yes. Every fibre of my body is convinced you are lying to me."

"I am not lying to you Azusa. I have no reason to lie to you, ever. Your people are good people. _You belong_ to a group of good people, Azusa."

"No, I, I can't. I could never fit in. I'm a monstrosity, I'm horrendous, I'm ugly, I'm-." Azusa was cut off by Yui and Ahsoka yelling in unison.

"What?!"

"Azunyan, you're adorable! You're so cute, and fluffy, and cuddly, and everything! You're not ugly or a monster!" Yui said, her voice sounding absolutely crushed

"Azusa, I would _love_ to have your looks. As Yui said, you are so goddamn cute! And your hair, I'd _kill_ to be able to grow hair! I see the other girls styling their hair in the temple, and part of me just dies inside." Ahsoka confessed, sounding rather defeated at admitting it.

"Really, well I'd kill to have your looks, Ahsoka. You have a perfect body. You aren't hideously deformed like I am. You have beautiful Montrals, a healthy and acrobatic body. And you aren't disabled like I am. Surely you would know this Ahsoka. You _know_ that Togrutans partially hear through their Montrals, you _know_ that their spatial awareness is almost entirely dependent on them. But you would still wish this curse on yourself?! Are you out of your mind?!" Ahsoka retorted, getting angry at Ahsoka for seemingly no reason.

"I'm going to go now Azusa. I do not wish to cause you any grief by having an argument with you, I only wanted to help, but I see now that this will take much longer than I thought." Ahsoka turned to Yui and bowed. "Forgive me; I got her all worked up over nothing."

Yui returned the bow. "It's ok, trust me"

As Ahsoka was about to leave, her comlink started beeping. The girl answered it, and the voice of Anakin Skywalker filled the room.

"Ahsoka, are you still in the medical bay?" he asked.

"Yes Master, I am, why do you wanna know?"

"Can you ask Yui Hirasawa to see me as soon as she can, she isn't in trouble, I just need to have a word with her."

"Can do. I'll see you soon Master." Ahsoka shut off the transmission.

"I got all that, I'll see him soon, don't worry!" Yui said cheerfully.

"You can find him in his quarters, on the next floor up. You'll know which one is his, it'll be the one that sounds like a workshop." Ahsoka said as she walked to the door. "Seeya girls, it was nice to meet you Azusa, I'm sure we will talk again in the future." Ahsoka walked out of the door.

 _Thank the force she's gone, I can't stand her positivity…_

"Azunyan, are you ok?" Yui asked, now deeply worried about the small girl's health from hearing the conversation between the two Togrutas.

"I'm fine, leave me alone." Azusa responded bluntly, not wanting to deal with Yui right now.

"Azunyan. Talk to me." Yui urged the twin-tailed girl.

"No, I will not talk to you, because you're part of the problem!" Azusa snapped, sitting upright in her bed suddenly.

"A-Azunyan?! What do you mean?" Yui said, her voice sounding incredibly hurt.

"I mean just that! Everything you do drives me crazy!" Azusa yelled back, she could feel many years of pent up frustration coming to a boiling point. She let loose. "You're constantly dancing on thin ice, paying absolutely no heed to any danger, and ignoring any advice I give you! And you _KNOW_ that you're doing it too! But you just go dancing through doorways, just to see what the fuck you will find, not letting anything interfere with the crazy balance that is your mind, Yui! And when you show up again, as carefree as ever, you've gone and thrown your love to all the strangers, and any sense of caution to the wind! How do you manage to live a life like that, Yui?!"

Yui uttered no response, Azusa turned her back to the brunette, she had said enough.

"I-I'm sorry, Azunyan!" Yui yelled, her voice running high on emotions. Azusa could hear something else though. A dripping sound, hitting the floor near Yui's feet.

 _Did, I make her cry? Oh fuck, no, I didn't want to, I didn't want to hurt her, I just snapped and I couldn't stop and-._

"You're not even going to answer me Azunyan?!" Yui screamed, sounding incredibly hurt. Azusa had been so phased out she never heard Yui ask a question. "Fine then! I'll leave you alone!" Yui yelled, before running out of the medical bay, sobbing uncontrollably.

 _Ahsoka, you say I'm not a monster, yet I think I've gone and proven that I am. It doesn't matter what I do, I hurt everyone around me…_

 ***.*.***

 _You walk out on the high wire_

 _You're a dancer on thin ice_

 _You pay no heed to the danger_

 _And less to advice_

 _Your footsteps are forbidden_

 _But with a knowledge of your sin_

 _You throw your love to all the strangers_

 _And caution to the wind_

 _And you go dancing through doorways_

 _Just to see what you will find_

 _Leaving nothing to interfere_

 _With the crazy balance of your mind_

 _And when you finally reappear_

 _At the place where you came in_

 _You've thrown your love to all the strangers_

 _And caution to the wind_

 _It takes love over gold_

 _And mind over matter_

 _To do what you do that you must_

 _When the things that you hold_

 _Can fall and be shattered_

 _Or run through your fingers like dust_

Dire Straits – Love over Gold – Written by Mark Knopfler

 ***.*.***

 **A/N:** So I notice that my chapters are beginning to drag on a little more, which personally I'm ok with. I get so lost in my writing, and it's awesome. It's a bit jarring to go from 1.6k to 3.7k to 5.1k, but it's just how it happened so I guess we'll have to live with it :P.

This chapter was really fun to write. The 'operation' scene was a challenge for me, but I think I managed to pull it off well enough for it to work. Got to introduce three characters I want in the story as well, namely Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka. I'm looking forward to Anakin and Yui's meeting, and seeing more interactions between Ahsoka and Azusa. The Ahsoka and Azusa conflict was really hard for me to write, as they are two of my favourite characters, ever. But I think it feels justified, Azusa is an extremely insecure person, and seeing a manifestation of her ideal body presented to her in the form of a person who views her as a miracle of nature and not a freak of it, is extremely confronting for her.

I also got to touch a little on the corruption of the Jedi Council that occurred during the war. They started thinking not about their students and the Jedi they had to look after, but about the Clone Troopers that were out fighting a war that the Jedi should never have gotten involved in. This also set up the introduction of Anakin/Obi-Wan/Ahsoka nicely, while giving a bit more development to the really awesome character of Plo Koon.

If anyone is wondering, yes, there will be Azusa/Plo feelsgoodman stuff coming up; it's about time we took a little break from depressionville.

 **About the lyrics I included and the name of this chapter:** Ok, so originally this chapter was named after my favourite Dire Straits album, "Love over Gold" which has the track of the same name on it. When I was about halfway through this fic, I was listening to the album to get me in the mood, and I realised how well the lyrics for the song _Love over Gold_ fit with Azusa and Yui. The first two verses match how Azusa feels towards Yui at the moment, and the last verse is Yui desperately trying to help Azusa, but stumbling at the last second and potentially ruining everything. I really liked it, so I actually wrote the 'Azusa' part of the song into Azusa's rant at Yui. It's not too hard to see, you'll find it super easily if you look.

This Author's Note is dragging on, so I'll leave it here. Please, if you see any mistakes or want to tell me how I can improve, leave a review. I'm not going to get any better if I can't learn from my mistakes :]. Constructive and harsh criticism is appreciated and encouraged.


	5. Chapter IV: The Power of Love

Yui was sitting in her room, crying. Azusa's words had stung; she had no idea that was how Azusa _really_ thought about her. She didn't know what to think. The entire time she had been trying to keep her, trying not to lose her, she had been pushing her away with her own actions. She had lost Azusa, and she could never see Azusa opening up to her, trusting her, or even talking to her, ever again.

 _I, I think I should go see Master Skywalker. He needed to talk to me anyway; maybe he can help me out here…_ Yui thought to herself, sniffling and wiping her eyes. If she was going to go out, she needed to calm down first. Yui walked into the small bathroom that was connected to her room and splashed some water on her face, almost immediately making her feel refreshed and a little more awake.

Yui walked over to the door, and took a deep breath before stepping outside into the corridor. _I have to look like I'm ok; I can't let anyone suspect me_. Yui thought to herself as she made her way through the Temple's extravagant hallways. After walking for about five minutes, Yui heard the sound of clattering mechanical parts, and the sound of some kind of tool being slammed against something metal. _This must be Master Skywalker's chambers._ Yui thought to herself, getting ready to knock.

"Come in!" The voice of Anakin Skywalker said, slightly muffled by the door. To Yui's surprise, the door opened, and she walked in. She saw Anakin working on some kind of engine in the far corner of the room.

"Ah, Padawan Yui. Glad you could make it, we need to talk." Anakin said in a friendly tone, before putting down his tools and sitting down on the floor.

"Yes, and I need your guidance too, if you can offer it." Yui said, sitting down opposite to him. With one wave of his hand, Anakin closed the door.

"Ok Yui, do you _know_ what you did back in the med bay? You're not in trouble; I just want to know if you're fully aware of what happened." Anakin said, his voice remaining calm and friendly, Yui could not sense any malicious intent behind his words.

"Not really, no. I can barely remember what happened…" Yui said, sounding rather disappointed that she couldn't give Anakin an answer.

"That's ok, I know what happened. You tapped into a powerful and forbidden emotion, an emotion that Jedi are not allowed to use." Anakin said, his tone becoming ever slightly so serious. "You tapped into the emotion of Love, Yui."

 _That's the power of love? I did all that because of my love for Azunyan?_ Yui thought to herself, confused at how such a thing would work. _I have to defend myself, Love is a forbidden emotion, and Anakin is a friend of many Council members, what if he tells them? I'll be expelled for sure!_

"Master Skywalker, that can't possibly be true. Love is an emotion we're not allowed to feel, right? So how could I have felt that way at that time?" Yui said, confusing herself with her own logic.

"Yui, you don't have to hide information from me. You confide in me, I'll confide in you, deal?" Anakin said, his tone friendly and honest. Yui knew she could trust him.

"Um, ok then… I, I think I like Azusa. I mean, really like Azusa. I don't know what it is, but she's so cute, and everything about her is just perfect. I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I can't help myself…" Yui confessed, surprised that she was telling this to someone she had only met a day or two ago.

"I completely understand Yui. I too, have feelings like that for someone special in my life. I think the Council is wrong to supress those emotions, as they are valuable assets to the Jedi, as we saw the other day when you saved Azusa's life despite everyone present thinking it could not be saved. I also think that those emotions make us better Jedi, when used in moderation of course." Anakin admitted, speaking to Yui with his heart.

"Wow, even you, a high ranking Jedi, feel these emotions?" Yui asked, genuinely fascinated as to why she had never heard another Jedi say such things.

"Yes Yui, and I think it's natural. Now, I trust that you will keep our conversation a secret, right? Nobody can know of this, or we will both risk expulsion from the order, which is all we have. We have no lives outside of this temple Yui, so we need to keep this one that we have here." Anakin stated, his voice sounding serious again.

"I understand, Master Skywalker. Thank you." Yui rose to her feet, and bowed to the older Jedi, before leaving him alone with his machines and tools.

 _I don't think I agree with the council… They wanted Azusa to die, they suppress powerful force abilities that can save lives, and they manipulate the clones fighting on the front lines from the safety of Coruscant…_ Yui thought to herself as she wandered back to her room. _At any rate, I think I should meditate on this; I need to clear my mind and think as logically as I can. For Azusa._

Yui walked into her room and sat on her bed. She began a meditative trance that Plo Koon had taught her.

Yui closed her eyes and imagined her twin-tailed Togruta.

 ***.*.***

Azusa opened her eyes. After Yui had left, she had cried herself to sleep. _How could I have been so foolish to push her away? All Yui wanted to do was help me, and now she's gone. I've hurt her, deeply. I don't know if she will ever forgive me, I may have lost the one girl I truly lo-_. Azusa's train of thought was cut off by the sound of the medical bay door opening.

"Little Azusa, may I come in?" Asked the voice of her oldest friend, the father she never had, Plo Koon.

"Y-yes Uncle Plo, please, come in…" Azusa replied weakly

"I hope you are recovering well." Plo said, the mere sound of his voice helping Azusa calm down. He sat at the foot of her bed, and slowly rubbed her back, giving the small twin-tailed girl some comfort.

"I-I'm going ok, I guess…" Azusa responded, her voice still a little quiet. She was still horribly upset about Yui.

"Azusa, I can tell something is bothering you. Please, tell me what it is. I will keep it a secret." Plo said, sounding concerned for the small girl he had raised.

"O-ok, I trust you Uncle Plo." Azusa said, cheering up a little, just knowing that he was on her side meant a lot to the small Togruta. "I, I think I've pushed away a very good friend, someone who I miss very dearly, and I fear that they will never forgive me for my outburst…" Azusa started to cry a little; just thinking about what she to Yui was enough to bring her to tears.

"Oh dear, young one…" Plo softly said as he embraced the small girl. Azusa cried into his chest for a few minutes, and Plo just sat there, comforting her with his presence. "If you find the courage to talk to this friend again, I am almost certain they would love to be friends with you again, Azusa." Plo spoke kindly, Azusa stopped crying and sat back up.

"But, why would they? I have nothing to offer to them as a friend, I'm just trouble, I am judgemental, I can't say anything nice to them, and-." Plo cut her off there.

"You know just as well as I do that you're lying to yourself. Little Azusa, who was this friend?"

"Yui… Yui Hirasawa…" Azusa said, choking back tears as she said the girl's name.

"Yui wouldn't hate you Azusa…" Plo said, bringing the small Togrutan in for another hug. "You know just as well as I do that she cares deeply for you, and I can feel similar emotions from you Azusa." Azusa stiffened up, suddenly afraid that the one person she trusted could tell she had feelings for someone.

"U-Uncle Plo, it isn't the way you think it is, it-"

"Azusa, it's ok. I do not judge you, or blame you, or even think you are in the wrong. Having these feelings is good for you; just don't let them control you. Ok? I don't want the girl I raised to fall to the lure of the dark side." Plo squeezed the small Togruta, Azusa could tell he cared deeply about her and her well-being.

"But, I said horrible things to her, I offended her to no end, how can I be friends with her anymore, let alone… In love…" Azusa said, whispering the last part under her breath.

"Azusa, it's ok. Talk to her again, apologize, I'm sure everything will work out fine." Plo said calmly, giving the girl another tight hug before letting go. "I have to go report to the council about how you are; I'll leave out the minor details between you and Yui."

Azusa couldn't see because of his protective mask, but she knew he was giving her a smile and a wink.

"Thank you, Uncle Plo…" Azusa managed a weak smile.  
 _Everything is going to work out fine; I just need to get on with it._

Azusa prepared to meditate and get into a better mindset. She closed her eyes and imagined the goofy brunette she had fallen in love with.

 ***.*.***

Taaron opened his eyes. His head was pounding; he could barely focus on anything. The lights overhead were blinding, and the voices he could hear sounded distorted. He vaguely remembered trying to fight one of the guards, and it was painfully clear to him how that went.

"Glad that you're with us again, Taaron." Ritsu said, helping Taaron up from his cell bed. "Guard roughed you up pretty good."

"No kidding…" Taaron replied, his voice weak due to the pain of his throbbing head. Taaron looked around the cell and remembered it being a lot more cramped compared to the last time. _Ritsu wasn't in my cell either, hmm…_ Taaron thought to himself. "Ritsu, did we get moved again? Is this a new location?"

"Yeah, it is. The Clones are right on their trail so hopefully we'll be found soon."

"Cut the chatter you two! Your precious clones aren't gonna do shit because this is all a _hugeee_ plan set up by one of your big old republic friends." One of the guards slurred drunkenly at them.

"You're not meant to tell them that!" The other yelled at him, before kicking him in the groin. "Ignore what he said, he's drunk."

 _Yeah, right. This is a conspiracy? But who could it be? Surely not someone from the temple, unless…_ Taaron thought to himself, before sitting down and trying to recall the day of their capture. Taaron saw an explosion, felt the sensation of falling, and remembered Azusa, standing in the smoke of their wrecked speeder? _What was she doing there? Why would she be standing on our speeder, glaring at me? I don't think it's her, but, could it be? Would Azusa really do this?_

"Taaron? You ok?" Ritsu asked, worried for her cell mate.

"Hm?" Taaron mumbled, snapping out of his thoughts. "Oh, yeah, I was just, thinking…"

"Ok, well we should get some rest. I imagine we'll be moving again soon, we need to be ready to move when they want us too…" Ritsu said, sounding defeated. Taaron wondered if the days of seclusion had gotten to her.

"Yeah, I don't wanna get beat again…" Taaron said, laying down and closing his eyes.

 ***.*.***

"CT-Forty-Four Seventy-Two, do you copy?" The voice of a commanding officer spoke over a secure communications channel. The recipient of this communication was CT-4472, a Clone Recon officer who had modified armor, its defining features being the binocular/visor combo built into the helmet, and the small ray shield built into his left gauntlet. His armor had green accents, identifying him as a member of the 41st Clone legion. CT-4472 was hidden behind some crates, overlooking a suspicious target roughly 200 meters away, and 30 meters down from his current position.

"Yes Sir, I copy. Send reinforcements to level 1313 sector 42, I believe I've located the lost Jedi."

"Copy that CT-4472, two Gunships have been deployed and are headed towards your position."

CT-4472 readjusted himself in his hiding place. He had his rifle aimed at a pair of thugs standing outside a small but discreet warehouse. One of the thugs perfectly matched the image drawn by eyewitnesses and Padawan Nakano herself, it was as solid a lead as anything. CT-4472 heard the drone of Gunships in the distance, rapidly closing in. When they came into his sight, he jumped from his vantage point and charged at the warehouse.

"You two! On your knees! Now!" CT-4472 yelled, causing nearby citizens to panic and run. The Gunships landed and spilled their troops out, all forming up to charge the warehouse. The guards were cuffed and loaded into a Gunship protected by 10 Clone Troopers, they would pay for their crimes.

"Reporting for duty, Sir!" A Clone Lieutenant snapped as he executed a perfect salute. "These troops are under your command now Sir!"

"Alright men! Charge the building and secure all exits! Get one of those birds in the sky," CT-4472 yelled as he pointed to one of the Gunships, "I want to know if anyone leaves this warehouse!"

"Sir yes Sir!" A pair of clone pilots yelled as they rushed back to their Gunship, taking 5 clones with them for cover fire and reinforcements.

"Everyone else, with me! Set for stun, I want all these scum alive!" CT-4472 barked, pointing to two assembled squads and pointing at the entrance.

The Clones stormed the warehouse, guns blazing. CT-4472 took out two guards in quick succession and released the door to a cell holding a pair of Jedi.

"You two, move it!" He barked, pointing towards the entrance and to the waiting Gunship.

"Yes Sir!" They yelled back, before charging up the stairs and to freedom.

CT-4472 turned his attention back to the fight, leveling his DC-15A assault rifle and let loose a volley of electric pulses into a pair of thugs rushing out from a nearby corridor. He witnessed the last of the Padawans being carried safely to the surface.

"Capture everyone we can and light the place up! We're outgunned!" CT-4472 yelled into his comlink, and received a response that reinforcements were on their way. "Alright men, hold out as long as we can!"

"Sir! Incomi-." A trooper yelled before his life was ended with a grisly scream. Replacing the place where he stood was a large droid, wielding the captured trainee's lightsabers. It's huge hands somehow holding seven of their non-lethal blades. _Apparently, they're lethal if you take seven of them to the chest…_ CT-4472 thought to himself, before opening fire on the hulking monstrosity.

The droid tanked the shots, charging onwards all the same. A pair of clone troopers appeared at the stairs, opening fire on the beast with much more powerful artillery, shredding the automaton with ease. CT-4472 turned his attention to the battle, rushing up to help a pair of troopers that were pinned down.

"Sir! Get out of here!"

"No man left behind soldier! We can do this!" CT-4472 yelled while unloading his clip into a nearby group of security droids.

"Thermal Detonators!" Shrieked the voice of a Clone as his life was brutally ended by the explosive device. CT-4472 saw one roll down beside him and the two clones he had run over to save.

"Run!" He barked to the two clones, who turned heel and sprinted for the exit. In one swift motion, CT-4472 picked up the Detonator and ran towards the group that had thrown it. The look of terror on their faces as they realized what was going to happen was the last thing he would ever see.

One brilliant flash of light later, and the battle was over.

 ***.*.***

 **A/N:** Ok, so this is a shorter one, but I just wanted to have a little something to get out before Christmas. Although, this chapter isn't really in the holiday spirit, so that's kinda defeating the point really ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. Anyway, this chapter was interesting, I enjoyed having some fluffier stuff between Plo and Azusa, and seeing Yui realize the seriousness of her actions and her attitude switch while she was talking to Anakin Skywalker was interesting to write. I'm not _entirely_ happy with the battle sequence at the end, so that may undergo future revisions, but for now, it will stay the way as it is.

In case the ending line wasn't clear enough, CT-4472 is dead. Pretty super really fuckin dead. We're talking he probably doesn't exist even as vapor at this point. Kind of a shame, I was beginning to like him.

For those that celebrate, I hope you have a Merry and/or Happy Christmas! I hope you get some presents that you were wishing for, and I hope the time spent with friends and/or family is a good catch up. If for some reason you're spending Christmas alone, and you want to talk to someone, PM me! I'll try my hardest to talk to you :)

Happy Holidays!


	6. Chapter V: Legacy

Ritsu stumbled out of the building with Taaron in tow, the echoes of blaster fire coming from deep within the rooms of that desolate place. A nearby pair of clone troopers rushed over to help her and walked her over to a waiting gunship, where she could see two of the other Padawans huddled by the doors.

"Beron, Mei! Thank goodness you guys made it out!" Ritsu exclaimed as she sat down beside them, giving Mei a playful jab with her elbow.

"Ritsu, you're always the joker aren't you?" Mei laughed half-heartedly. "Where are Judai and Liz? Didn't they come out with you?"

"I think I saw a clone run over to get them, maybe they're just not out yet?" Taaron answered, barely showing any emotion as he sat down at the other end of the gunship.

"I hope they get out, I don't know what I'd do if they were killed or captured again…" Beron said, incredibly distressed due to the ordeal that he had been through.

"You two, get in there!" Barked a nearby clone trooper, Ritsu figured he must have been a sergeant, someone with authority. The two clones that helped Ritsu out of the building charged back into the fray. Moments later, they returned with the bodies of Judai and Liz across their shoulders.

"Medic! We need a medic over here!" One of the clones yelled out, taking the Padawans to a nearby alley where they could be tended to in peace. A pair of clone troopers with red cross-shaped markings on their chests ran over and began analysing the unconscious Padawans.

Ritsu was shocked, after all they've been through, it couldn't end like that. She watched as a medic rolled Judai onto his side and tore the back of his robe off, revealing a gaping, glowing red hole.

"Judai was shot?!" Beron exclaimed, the sight of his friend with such a fatal injury caused him to break down in tears almost immediately.

Ritsu turned away, she couldn't stand to watch. It was all happening so fast, her ordeal was over, yes, but now there was death in the air, mixed with the fumes of charred flesh and burning bolts of plasma. _So this is what the taste of war is like, I don't like it, it's disgusting. Worse still, this is tame compared to the real fighting, I don't want to experience this first hand…_

"Thermal Detonators!" The muffled shriek of a clone before an explosion rocked the building. Ritsu turned her attention to the building, as one corner caved in under the pressure.

"Run!" Another voice yelled, a voice that sounded as if it carried authority, the gruff voice of a solider who was experienced in the field. Ritsu could sense what he was going to do; he was going to save the troopers stuck in that hell hole with him. Ritsu closed her eyes and covered her ears, attempting to shut out what she was feeling, the thoughts and emotions racing through the clone's mind, the unwanted stream of images and sounds being fed to her brain. Ritsu hopelessly watched through the clone's eyes as he charged towards a group of droids and gang members. She felt a blast enter his leg, felt the agony go through him, and just as he reached his target, the Detonator started to beep. This brave soldier's work was about to be finished, she could sense it, and she could sense that he was aware of this. She then heard his thoughts; there was no fear, no worry, just one sentence playing on loop thousands of times a second.

 _For my brothers, for the Republic, for freedom, for the Galaxy, and for the Jedi, this is my sacrifice._

Another explosion popped Ritsu's eardrums, agony spread throughout her entire body for just a millisecond, before she collapsed to the ground. The building caved in, and Ritsu couldn't see any survivors emerging from the rubble, just the bodies of those who were crushed just before they could escape.

Ritsu began to weep.

 ***.*.***

Yui Hirasawa had just woken up from the most peculiar dream. She was a Clone Trooper, storming a dark building, shooting at baddies, even Ritsu was there! But Ritsu wasn't fighting with her, Ritsu had run out of the building. That's odd, it's not like Ritsu to run from a fight, but she had pressed onwards without hesitation. Before she knew it, she was pinned down with two other troopers, a Thermal Detonator had rolled beside her, and she was charging down the enemy. The dream ended shortly after.

"What a silly dream…" Yui mumbled softly to herself, before rolling over and falling back asleep.

 ***.*.***

The smoke had cleared, the battle had ended, and now, Ritsu was moving rocks. It had to be done, they had to locate any survivors they could, both friend and foe alike, they needed information from their enemy, as much as they could get. Ritsu knew it was a futile effort, she had felt the deaths of everyone in that building, but she needed to be sure, she didn't entirely trust her instincts. So Ritsu used the force to heave a large slab of concrete from the mound, and another, and another, another, which is where she found a lightsaber underneath it. _What's this doing here?_

It wasn't one of the lightsabers that the Padawans had when they were captured; it was curved, unique in every way. She had never seen anything like it. Ritsu thumbed the blade on and it revealed a bright, crimson red colour. Ritsu turned the blade off and waved at the nearest clone.

"Hey, you! Trooper! Get me a backpack!" Ritsu yelled, wondering where this lightsaber could have come from. It's black and grey striping was interesting, and while certainly unique, the weapon didn't feel like it was individual. _Perhaps it has a twin?_ Ritsu mused to herself, continuing to move slabs aside and finding the grisly remains of clones and insurgents alike. The trooper returned with a republican backpack and handed it to her, before returning to his area of the rubble. Ritsu placed the lightsaber in there delicately, making sure that anything else that went in there would break or activate the weapon.

 _I wonder how that got here, or who it belongs too…_ Ritsu wondered to herself as she continued digging through the crushed steel and concrete. A small amount of green was visible through a crack in the rubble. _That's weird, there isn't any natural vegetation on Coruscant, what is that?_

Ritsu heaved a slab of concrete away with one push of the force, and found a clone trooper gauntlet, mostly intact, but still shattered. She picked it up, admiring the green stripe on the white armor, along with the cracks and burns that were scattered across the gauntlet. _Did this belong to the Clone that let Taaron and I out of our cell? I don't remember seeing any other Clones with green armor…_

Ritsu put the gauntlet in her bag and continued digging around the area. It wasn't long until she had uncovered a mostly intact shoulder plate, again with the signature green stripe. She placed the shoulder plate in her bag and heaved a large chunk of steel, uncovering the remains of a chest plate. Ritsu figured that the chest plate was at most three-quarters intact, and was covered in dirt and ash. Picking it up, Ritsu wiped off the ash and dust from the chest plate. The plate was burnt, there were large cracks across it, a green stripe down the center, but that wasn't what Ritsu was focused on, because on the right side of the chest plate, barely visible through the cracks and burnt armor, was a four digit number.

"Four, Four, Seven, Two. Forty-Four, Seventy-Two? Four thousand, Four hundred and Seventy Two?" Ritsu said aloud, trying to figure out how the number was meant to be read. The clone who gave her the backpack overheard her and rushed over.

"You found him? CT Forty-Four, Seventy-Two? What's left of him?" He asked, clearly wanting an answer. The trooper appeared to be desperate. Ritsu wordlessly handed over the chest plate, and the solider sat on the rubble, his head hanging down, staring at the chest plate.

"I'm so sorry, is there anything I can do to help?" Ritsu asked, able to see the clone was clearly distressed.

"No, it's just," the clone said as he removed his helmet, "it's just that he was one of my closest mates. We were in the same batch, raised together, trained together, Scott and I, we was inseparable. Well, we were until we got assigned. I was assigned to the Coruscant guard, while Scott went on to become a member of the 41st legion; he was one of the best trackers they had. That's why they brought him here, for the sole purpose of finding you guys." The brave soldier that sat before her broke down and started crying.

"I'm, sorry to hear that you two were close." Ritsu said, putting her arm on his shoulder for comfort. "But Scott did his job, and he did it with pride. I was able to hear his thoughts just before the explosion; would you like to know his last words? I feel like if anyone, you should be the one to know."

"What the hell, Scott would have wanted me to know. Hit me with it kid."

"Ok, here it is. _For my brothers, for the Republic, for freedom, for the Galaxy, and for the Jedi, this is my sacrifice_ ".

The clone broke down in tears again, covering his face with his hands. "I loved Scott; he was closer to me than any of my other brothers. We were the perfect team, and I couldn't save him…"

"Don't think like that trooper, Scott wouldn't have wanted you to be hurt. In truth, I think he was glad that you were safe; you were away from this mess."

The clone calmed down, sniffling and wiping his eyes. "Y-You're right. Thank you, so very much. I needed that, more than you know…"

"No problem trooper, tell me, what is your number, what's your name? I'm Ritsu Tainaka; it's my pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Fo-forgive me sir! I am CT-Six-Oh One-Oh Three, and my name is Flyer. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir!"

"It's good to meet you too Flyer. Hey, do you mind if I keep Scott's chest plate? I kinda want to have something to remember him by; he saved me from that hell-hole after all."

"Yes, of course sir!" Flyer said, handing the battered and worn chest plate over. "But it won't be any good without a back plate to connect it with, have mine. I can say that mine got damaged and I had to take it off, besides, it's the only way Scott and I can ever be together." There was definitely a hidden emotion in his voice, one Ritsu couldn't quite pin down. Perhaps it was heartbreak, losing a brother must be tough after all.

"That's really sweet of you Flyer, thank you." Ritsu said removing the back plate off of the clone and placing it in her bag with Scott's chest plate. "We better get back to work; we'll get in trouble if your supervisor catches us."

"Understood." Flyer said, standing up and putting his helmet back on. "Thank you, Commander Ritsu."

"No, thank you, Flyer." Ritsu said, saluting the soldier. Flyer returned the salute, before returning to his post.

Hours later, Ritsu gave up. There was no sign of life, no other parts of CT-4472's armour was left. It had been vaporised. Ritsu wondered how the parts that she had scavenged had even survived a point blank Thermal Detonator, but she didn't want to know.

 _I'm going to honor your memory Scott, I will wear your armor in battle, and I will wear it in pride. From now on, I am Ritsu Tainaka, soon to be Jedi Knight, and the proud heir of the number Forty-Four, Seventy-Two._

 ***.*.***

 **A/N:** I'm so sorry for the lack of updates; I've hit a creative wall that I'm struggling to overcome. I'm also sorry that this chapter was so short, in truth, the next chapter is going to be a 'continuation' of sorts in the sense it will have the rest of the stuff I wanted to have in this chapter, but that's the part I'm struggling on, and I thought this was decent enough to upload as its own, admittedly rather short, chapter.

Ok, so about the chapter. I felt like Ritsu had barely anything happening, we haven't seen her since the start of the story, and as a character, she was practically non-existent. I think this chapter helped rectify that a little, but at the very least it's a start. Ritsu is obviously very broken right now, she's just been through the worst ordeal in her life, and has been thrust into the conflict of the Clone Wars much sooner than the Jedi Council could have anticipated, so she isn't mentally prepared. This is present in the other Padawans too, who are freaking out at the sudden battlefield that has erupted around them, and are responding accordingly (by hiding, and in the case of Judai, getting shot).

In complete contrast, Taaron isn't fazed at all, and seems to be focused on something else entirely. He knows something the others don't, but I wouldn't expect him to be giving it up anytime soon, he would much rather get to the bottom of whatever it is by himself, which is rather un-Jedi like if I do say so myself.

Ritsu picks up some sweet armor by scavenging after the battle, something she seems to be good at, indicating she might have had a rough upbringing because she is so good at digging through ruined areas and rubbish for anything that might have been of value. Just a cute little nod to the general consensus that Ritsu's family in the actual Keion universe used to have it pretty rough, while serving a practical use for later.

Keep the lightsaber in mind, it'll show up soon (in theory).

We also get to see Ritsu being compassionate and helping when she can, despite needing help herself. When Ritsu sees another in need, she prioritises their needs over hers, which we clearly see when Flyer breaks down upon hearing of Scott's sacrifice.

Actually, while we're on the topic of Flyer and Scott, their names and numbers are a little reference that shows how close they are.

The numbers CT-4472 and CT-60103, along with their corresponding names, are taken from (arguably) the world's most famous steam locomotive, _The Flying Scotsman._ This is just something I did subconsciously at first, as I was (and to a lesser extent, still am) absolutely fascinated by _The Flying Scotsman_ so those are two of my go-to "big numbers". From there, I thought "hey, why not make them super close and stuff?" and so I did. Read into it more if you want to, you might just be right ;).

Anyyyyyyway, that was a rather short chapter V, chapter VI soon to come (hopefully, don't quote me on that) so here's hoping! I'll try and get some more chapters out more often, but ultimately they'll go up when they're ready. This chapter is an exception to that rule, because of reasons I don't need to go into, but don't expect a chapter to be broken in two unless it's ludicrously long and I want it out by a certain day and the other half isn't _quite_ finished, etc. I'll update when updates are good.

(I think this Authors Note is almost as long as the chapter…)

Oh well, have a good one guys!


	7. Chapter VI: Desperado

The sun was setting over Coruscant, a bright orange hue danced across the skies as Taaron watched the clones pack away their equipment. _Finally, it's about time we went home, I need to get to the bottom of this._ Taaron thought to himself as he surveyed the destroyed remains of where his kidnappers had held him. On one hand, he was glad it was destroyed, and that the people involved were killed, on the other, he was infuriated that the republic went in guns-a-blazing and didn't take any hostages, and then let any leads that could have tracked down the mastermind get blown up. _Whatever, I'll figure it out on my own._ Taaron thought, before checking the surrounding alleys, just in case. He hadn't gone far when he found something, something curved and elegant.

"A lightsaber?" Taaron whispered to himself. "What's this doing out here?" he said as he reached for the weapon. Taaron then heard a whirl of fabric behind him.

"I'll be taking that back, _boy_ " a strange feminine voice hissed at him. Turning around, Taaron saw the voice belonged to a slender bald woman with facial tattoos.

"Who are you? Why do you want this lightsaber?" Taaron asked, more curious than anything.

The strange woman noticed that he wasn't cautious, nor willing to pick a fight with her. She seemed to take kindly to this and said her next words much more politely. "It belongs to me, that's why. I actually have two, but when that building I was investigating got destroyed by your republic troops I had to get out of there as soon as possible and I lost them while escaping."

"You were investigating those criminals? I was one of their hostages." Taaron said, handing the weapon over to the strange woman. "I want to get to the bottom of what happened, who was in charge of their operations. I vaguely remember hearing one of the grunts saying that their 'Mistress' would kill them if they failed, and I have a strong idea who that might be…"

"Oh really?" the stranger said, almost sarcastically. "And who do you think it is?"

"One of our own, another Jedi."

" _one of our own,_ " the woman said mockingly "I'm afraid you've gotten me all wrong my boy, I'm no Jedi."

"Then you're a Sith?" Taaron asked, more curious than worried.

"Not quite, my boy. Just an assassin trying to make her way in the galaxy." The woman replied nonchalantly, she seemed to trust him.

"Uh, ok then. Hey, lady, would I be able to join your investigation? If I'm right, having an inside eye in the temple may prove useful for you."

The woman pulled a comlink out of her pocket and handed it to him. "We will use this to keep in touch, and we will meet again soon, I have much to teach you, apprentice"

"Whoa, hold on, apprentice? I don't even know your name!" Taaron responded, confused, yet strangely overjoyed. _I'm going to excel in my studies if she takes me under her wing, for sure… Maybe I can destroy Nakano's image in that aspect too, she won't be good at anything, not in her eyes._

"My name is Ventress. Asajj Ventress." The woman said, turning to walk away. "Nobody must know of our deal, _nobody_."

"Understood, Master Ventress."

At the end of the alleyway, a clone rounded the corner, searching for Taaron.

"There you are, sir! We've been looking all over for you!" the clone waved at him. "Wait, hold on a minute, who's that?!" the soldier asked, raising his weapon. Without thinking, Taaron pulled the clone towards him with the force and disarmed him.

Taaron leveled the clone's blaster at his head. "I'm sorry," Tarron said as he pulled the trigger. The limp body fell to the ground, and Taaron put the blaster back in his arms. Running behind a dumpster, he yelled. "Medic! Man down! Man down! Sniper in the area!" and before he could count to ten, he saw a medic flanked by two soldiers running down the alleyway to assist him with the dead clone.

At the end of the alley, a solitary Ventress smiled as she walked away.

 ***.*.***

Taaron exited the alley and began moving toward the gunships. They were moving out, and they weren't going to leave until all the missing Padawans were onboard. He kept scanning the buildings as he walked, he knew there had to be a hint or _something_ here, there just had to be. He would unravel this conspiracy and expose the mastermind behind all of this. Taaron turned his gaze skyward and noticed Ventress inspecting some graffiti on one of the buildings. It was an orange face, with the initials A. N. _Of course…_ Taaron thought to himself, angry that he hadn't realized it sooner.

"Taaron, you alright?" Ritsu cut in, snapping him out of his daze

"Uh, yeah, sorry I was just, thinking…" Taaron responded hastily. He couldn't tell her, she was probably in on it, she is friends with the suspect after all.

"Uh, ok then. Just be careful alright, don't go stressing yourself out over nothing."

 _That isn't very reassuring…_ Taaron thought to himself.

Taaron and Ritsu boarded the gunship with the other Padawans and ascended into the glittering night sky of Coruscant. They were home free.

 ***.*.***

Yui sprinted to the temple hangar bay as fast as she could, she had only just found out that Ritsu had been recovered and wanted to be there to greet her best friend once she got there. The doors to the hangar bay opened, and Yui saw that there were two gunships coming in for landing. _Just in time!_ She thought to herself, sprinting up to meet with the other Jedi who were greeting the Padawans and the clones that rescued them. Despite it being so late at night, she could see every member of the council that was at the temple, along with all her classmates, she even saw some other masters that she recognized. _Master Skywalker? Why would he show up? It's nice of him to I guess…_

The gunships landed, and the doors opened. Clones and poured out of them like canned sardines, and began talking to the other clones stationed at the hangar, and even a few Jedi and Temple Guards who were present. But Yui couldn't see Ritsu, not through the big wall of clones and Jedi. She noticed Taaron, who was almost the same height as the clones and thus was rather easy to see in the crowd. Making her way to meet him, she saw he was walking with two friends who had come to meet him.

"Hey, Taaron!" Yui exclaimed cheerfully

"Uh, hi Yui, sorry, but I'm busy right now." Taaron responded, rather annoyed

"Ok!" Yui replied cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to Taaron's response.

As Taaron walked away, Yui heard him say something about catching up with some friend's tomorrow night. _That's nice, maybe we should have a catch up to celebrate Ritsu's return! Ooooh! Speaking of Ritsu, where is she?_ Yui scanned the group that had gathered in the hanger, but couldn't find her energetic friend anywhere. Yui began to panic.

Yui began to panic so hard, that she didn't notice someone sneak up on her, nor did she notice the person putting her hands on her shoulders and squeezing them.

"I lived bitch"

"RITSU!" Yui jumped, turning around and enveloping her best friend in a long-awaited hug. "YOU SCARED ME RITSU"

"Yui! I'm alright!" Ritsu responded, returning the hug. "Sorry, I couldn't resist, you were so helpless!" Ritsu chuckled.

"It's good to have you back, Captain!" Yui exclaimed, still holding her friend tight.

"It's good to be back, Private" Ritsu responded, ending the hug and saluting Yui sarcastically.

The pair left the hangar, traversing down the long corridors of the temple to their room, talking the whole time. _I'm so happy I have Ritsu back…_ Yui wondered to herself. _I can't wait to organize a meeting up for all of us, we are gonna celebrate her return!_ Yui couldn't help smiling to herself.

"Whatcha smiling about Yui? Thinking about your pet cat?~" Ritsu teased, poking Yui in the ribs with her elbow.

"Nup!" Yui responded, oblivious to Ritsu's joking. That, or she didn't care. "Oh! Speaking of Azunyan, we um, had a falling out…" Yui's voice went from cheerful to depressed in a matter of milliseconds.

"Huh?! But, you two, you're so close!"

"We were… But Azusa had some things to say about me… I don't think she wants to be my friend anymore…"

"Yui…" Ritsu didn't know how to respond.

The pair spent the rest of the trip in complete silence until they entered their room. Yui ran into the center of the room and broke down in tears. Reacting quickly, Ritsu ran to comfort her, enveloping her in a hug and comforting her in any way she can.

"Yui, it's alright, she'll be your friend again, I know it"

"Ritsu… you don't understand…" Yui said between sobs

"What is it Yui, come on, talk to me, let me help you."

"I think I love her Ritsu…"

"Oh no"

 ***.*.***

Azusa was finally mobile again. She could leave the uncomfortable bed in the medical bay, at long last. It felt like she had been in there for years, doing tests, exercises, and other activities that she deemed pointless. Now that she was finally able to leave, Azusa had just one thing that she wanted to do. _I want to apologize to Yui_.

Making her way through the long, seemingly endless corridors of the temple, Azusa made her way to Yui's chambers. When she approached, she could hear the muffled voices of Yui and, Ritsu? _Ritsu is back?_ Getting closer, Azusa could make out some muffled words through the door.

"I think I love… Ritsu..."

Azusa froze. It couldn't be, right? She had misheard, for sure. She opened the door, and saw Yui and Ritsu on the floor, embracing one another caringly.

"Oh no" Ritsu said, noticing Azusa enter the room. "Azusa, it's not what it looks-"

"Yui?!" Azusa cut Ritsu off, yelling in anger, tears welling in her eyes.

"A-Azusa?!" Yui turned to face her, tears still in her eyes. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

Azusa was shocked, Yui wanted her to leave? _Fine, I'll leave!_

"I-I-I'm sorry, I-I didn't know!" Azusa squealed, crossing her hands across her stomach and buckling her knees as if she was going to be sick, before turning and running out of the room crying.

Azusa sprinted down the corridor, crying all the way.

"what's wrong with her?" A group of younglings asked, being led around by one of the temple's library staff.

But Azusa kept running.

"are you ok?" Came the voice of someone from her class, whose name she could barely remember.

And again, Azusa ran on.

"Azusa?!" Ahsoka yelled, turning to follow the girl.

But Azusa pressed on, doubling her speed.

Azusa ran, hoping to outrun her emotions and those who would judge her. She covered her ears and closed her eyes, she just wanted to block out the whole world and retreat into the soothing emptiness of her mind. Using the force as her guide, Azusa found a small courtyard balcony, and in a burst of newfound speed, ran out of the corridor and hid in there. She could hear the footsteps of Ahsoka and a few other concerned Jedi run past her, still chasing her through the corridor.

Azusa was alone with her thoughts.

 _How could you be so stupid! You just waltz into her room, not only_ _ **expecting**_ _her to be there, just waiting for you, but you expected her to be alone. No wonder why she loves Ritsu, at least Ritsu isn't as fucking stupid as you are!_

Azusa began to cry.

 _You're fucking pathetic! How could anyone want to be your friend?! You're the laughing stock of the temple. The girl who can't do anything right, not even dying. You're nothing but a hassle, you're just useless. You're a fucking freak._

Azusa got up and dusted herself off. Wiping the tears out of her eyes, Azusa moved to the balcony. _Coruscant, it's chaos, but at least it's organized chaos. At least Coruscant can do something right._ Azusa sighed as she reviewed the city, beautiful, yet ugly. Dysfunctional, yet organized. _Maybe you'd be better off becoming a part of Coruscant._

Azusa climbed onto the balcony and looked down. It was quite the drop. The balcony was easy 150 meters above the lowest floor of the Temple, and only 100 meters below the peak of the Temple. Azusa estimated that if she got a good enough jump, it could be thousands of meters until Azusa hit the ground.

"Here goes nothing…" Azusa braced herself to jump.

"Azusa, no! Please!" A familiar voice called from the entrance of the courtyard.

 _Yui…_

"No, Yui, please, don't come closer."

"Azusa, get down"

"Yui, go away!" Azusa yelled, turning around and pushing her into the nearest wall.

"Azusa, Stop!"

 ***.*.***

 **A/N:** Well, that took forever to write. I'm so sorry guys, writers block is a bitch  
anyways, I didn't like this chapter going in, but I think now that it's done, I'm much happier with it. the next few chapters are already drafted out, and most of them are about 50% through their first proper draft.

Again, I'm so sorry this took forever to come out. I hope you enjoyed this chapter all the same :)

Critism/suggestions are always welcome. I'm not going to get better unless I know what I'm doing wrong :)  
If you find any spelling/grammatical errors, or something just doesn't make sense, let me know, and I'll try to correct it as soon as possible!


	8. Chapter VII: As The Force wills

"No, Yui, please, don't come closer."

"Azusa, get down"

"Yui, go away!" Azusa yelled, turning around and pushing her into the nearest wall.

"Azusa, Stop!" Yui pleaded, before getting the air knocked out of her lungs and thrown into the wall behind her.

Yui stumbled to her feet. _No, please, don't do this!_ Yui could think it, but she couldn't say it. She was frozen, he body was refusing to move.

The girls stood there in complete silence for several moments until Yui had the courage to speak.

"Azusa, please. Talk to me. Let me help"

To Yui's surprise, or rather, joy, Azusa got down off the balcony. To Yui's dismay, the twin tailed Togruta broke into tears almost immediately after and curled up in a ball on the floor. Yui ran over to the girl and cradled her in her lap, much like how she had cradled her just a few short weeks ago when she found Azusa dangling from her hair in the training room.

"There-there, you're alright…" Yui said in a hushed voice, stroking Azusa's head as if she were a lost kitten. "You don't have to talk, it's ok to cry sometimes, ya know?" Yui said in a slightly more cheerful tone, before having a bit of a giggle, in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood.

Azusa continued to cry in Yui's lap. Yui started to wonder about what had happened to her, she did after all have a horrible string of luck recently, nearly being killed twice on the same day, and then being hospitalised for a good two or three weeks, Yui figured that Azusa was fatigued as is, let alone if something else had happened to the poor girl.

"Y-Yui…" Azusa finally whispered, between sobs.

"Yes, Azunyan?" Yui responded in a gentle and caring tone.

"Don't leave me…" Azusa whispered again, before breaking down and crying once more.

Yui held the girl closer and whispered into her ear. "I would never leave you, my Azusa."

The two girls stayed in each other's arms for quite some time, Yui stroking Azusa's head and back as Azusa cried into her lap. After a while, Azusa started to calm down, and sat up, opting to lean on Yui as opposed to lying on top of her. Yui brought Azusa into a comfortable embrace and held her caringly.

"Y-Yui…" Azusa whispered.

"Yes, Azunyan?"

"Is it alright if we talked?"

"Of course Azunyan! What can I do to help you?"

"You don't have to do anything, just listen, I guess."

"Ok Azusa."

Azusa took a deep breath.

"Well, I just feel so, um, useless, I guess. I just constantly feel that people make too much of a fuss about me and that all I do is cause problems. You remember when I was hospitalized, right? Well, there was check-ups and examinations every other hour, and it felt like I was under constant surveillance, there was no privacy." Azusa paused to catch her breath. "I felt like I was supposed to be important, and I know that I'm not because I'm me, I'm just little half-caste Azusa."

"Azunyan…" Yui was taken aback, she didn't know what to say. She knew Azusa was hurting, but she didn't know this.

"And then I feel like I'm a horrible friend. I'm a burden on you, and Ritsu, not to mention Mugi, Nodoka, and Mio, but I don't see them often enough to actually bother them."

"No, Azusa, you're not a horrible friend!" Yui said, struggling to express her feelings towards Azusa. _I can't just tell her that I think I love her, but I can't let her feel like this…_

"But I am! I have never given you guys anything of value, heck, I don't even contribute to conversations meaningfully when I'm with you, and it feels like all I do is just take stuff, like Mugi's snacks, or Nodoka's books, I just, I'm not a good fri-" Azusa was cut off by Yui pulling her in closer for a hug.

"Azusa, don't you dare think that," Yui said caringly into Azusa's ear. "You're more loved and appreciated than you realize…"

Yui was grateful that Azusa couldn't see her face because it was impossible to hide her blush.

"I suppose…" Azusa mumbled as she returned the hug that Yui was giving her and rested her head on her shoulder.

Yui and Azusa stayed in each other's for a little while longer, and Yui cherished every second of it. _Why can't we be like this more often Azusa?_ Yui thought while absentmindedly stroking Azusa's hair. _Why can't we have special moments like this more often…_

"Yui?" Azusa whispered

"Yes, Azunyan?"

"Should we head back to your room? It's probably about time I said hello to Ritsu."

"Sure, Azunyan!" Yui said cheerfully, but deep down Yui was upset that their quiet moment together was coming to an end. Azusa got off Yui and extended her hand to help Yui to her feet. Yui took her hand and didn't let go.

 ***.*.***

Azusa was screaming inside. Her entire evening had been a rollercoaster ride of emotions. She went to apologize to Yui, overheard something she wished she didn't hear, nearly committed suicide, vented some of her problems to Yui, and then spent a good thirty minutes snuggling with her. Azusa was broken, but in a good way. Her heart was skipping beats, and she had a massive blush, but she mustn't show it.

To make matters worse, or perhaps better, Yui was still holding her hand. They had been walking to Yui's room for several minutes now, and Yui hadn't let go. Not that Azusa wanted her to let go of course, but they were attracting some weird looks from the other Jedi that were passing by.

At last, they finally reached Yui's room. Yui let go of her hand and opened the door. _Funny, I thought I could see a blush on her face? Probably nothing…_

Yui and Azusa entered Yui's room to see Ritsu lying on her bed reading a textbook. _Ritsu's trying to play catch-up I see. She did miss a few important lessons while she was missing…_

"Hey Yui, hey Azusa!" Ritsu cheerfully said before putting her book down. "Thank the force you showed up, this was beginning to get boring."  
"Hey, Ritsu…" Azusa said softly. "Sorry about how I acted earlier, that was selfish and stupid of me…"

"Hey, don't sweat it! You've had it pretty tough lately." Ritsu responded, scratching the back of her head.

"I've had it tough? Ritsu, you were kidnapped!" Azusa said, shocked at how ok her friend was with what had happened to her.

"Yeah-yeah, but now I'm home and I get to chill with you guys again, so it's all good!"

"Yeah!" Yui cheered, shoving her fist in the air. Ritsu copied Yui and they both started being silly together, throwing things at one another and making a mess.

 _Ritsu's barely been back here for an hour or two and she's already making a mess of things…_

"Well, I'll leave you guys be," Azusa announced. "It's late, and I need to go and fix my room up, I haven't lived in it for weeks after all…"

"Awwwwwww, ok Azunyan!" Yui responded, running over and giving the small Togruta a hug. "We'll all hang out tomorrow right?"

"Uh, yeah, sure!" Azusa said with a slight smile.

"Sounds good, I'll see you tomorrow Azusa." Ritsu said, waving Azusa goodbye.

"Seeya guys." Azusa turned and left the room and made her way down the towering temple corridors. On her way to her room, Azusa could see Ahsoka up ahead, pacing with frustration. Azusa ran over to Ahsoka, hoping that she was alright.

"Hey, Ahsoka, what's up?" Azusa asked carefully, not wanting to disturb the purebred Togruta.

"Azusa!" Ahsoka yelled in surprise, throwing Azusa into a caring embrace. "We've been looking all over for you! We assumed the worst…"

 _Oh, shit, yeah I remember now… Ahsoka was chasing me with some other Jedi…_

"I'm so sorry Ahsoka…"

"Hey! Don't be like that, you're ok, and that means that there isn't a problem." Ahsoka responded quickly, trying to assure Azusa that she didn't need to apologize. "I'll let the others know I've found you."

"Thanks, Ahsoka…"

Ahsoka pulled out her comlink and started a conversation with an unheard and unseen person.

"Yeah, Skyguy? I found Azusa. Yeah, she's with me, no need to worry. Yeah, maybe go see Master Plo and let him know she's alright. Right, see you tomorrow." Ahsoka packed away her comlink and turned to face Azusa again. "All good! Just spoke with my master, and he's calling off the search."

"Thanks, Ahsoka…" Azusa mumbled softly. "Hey, could you walk with me to my room? I want someone to talk to…"

"Hmm? Sure thing Azusa!" Ahsoka cheerfully piped up. "Sooooooooo, what's up?"

"I feel, lost. Like I don't know what I'm meant to be doing."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean just that. I have no idea who I am, or what I'm doing. All I know is that I'm Azusa Nakano, the filthy Togruta half-caste." Azusa spat out the last part of her sentence as if the very words she muttered had made her sick.

Ahsoka screwed up her face at Azusa's attitude, offended by how she treated herself.

"Oh, I forgot. You purebreds actually _like_ half-castes…" Azusa mumbled under her breath.

"Azusa, you're a blessing onto the galaxy. You may not understand it, but your mere existence is miraculous, and Togruta people everywhere rejoice in knowing that a half-caste child is studying at the _Jedi Temple._ Like, that makes them so proud, that such a miraculous child could be born with such a gift, it's never happened before. My people, _our people,_ are so proud of you."

"That's just the problem! I don't feel special! I feel like a waste of space if I'm honest."

"How so?" Ahsoka asked, her voice was laced with concern. "Have you got some problems you want to talk to me about Azusa?"

Azusa hesitated for a second, before answering the Togruta's question.

"Yes, actually. Can we wait until we get to my room though? It's only a minute or two away, and what I want to say is really personal…"

"Of course! Azusa, you can trust me to keep a secret, heck I might even confide in you."

"Thank you, Ahsoka, truly."

The two Togrutas approached Azusa's quarters and entered together.

"Forgive the mess, I haven't lived in here for a few weeks." Azusa apologized as the two Togrutas entered the rather spacious living quarters. There were two segments to Azusa's room, a downstairs general living area with a kitchen and small table, and a more personal upstairs area, which included the bedroom and bathroom, but no walls.

"I know Azusa, it's ok, really. It's not nearly as messy as Skyguy's room anyway."

"I've been meaning to ask, who's 'Skyguy'?"

"Oh, right, sorry. Skyguy is my nickname for my master, Anakin Skywalker."

"Oooh, that makes sense now."

"Yeah, he has a nickname for me too. 'Snips'"

"Snips?"

"Yeah, because I was snippy when we first met. I like to think my attitude has improved since then, it has been nearly two years after all."

"Oh, so you guys are close? That's pretty cool I guess."

"You're not close with anyone? I thought you and Yui were pretty close."

"Yeah, we are, but that's one of my problems…" Azusa sighed. "I'm not sure I'm a good friend to Yui."

"What do you mean Azusa? Yui's never complained to me about you, ever, and trust me, since I met Yui, if she had something to complain about, I heard about it."

Azusa was a little annoyed that Yui was talking to another girl behind her back, but she tried not to show her annoyance. _Ahsoka is trying to help you, not steal Yui from you. Be reasonable, you idiot._

"Yeah, but I don't think I've treated her well recently. Heck, just today I snapped at her, yelled at her, nearly forced her to watch me die, and then cried into her shoulder for entirely too long. She didn't do anything to deserve that."

"Hold on, what do you mean 'nearly forced her to watch me die'?"

"I mean just that, I nearly killed myself, and she was standing right beside me."

"Oh my god Azusa, please tell me you're feeling better now."

"I am, but can we get back on track please?" Azusa said, slightly annoyed. "I don't like people making a fuss over me…"

"Right, sorry." Ahsoka apologized, hoping she didn't offend the petite Togruta. "Continue, if you want to that is."

"As I was saying, I don't feel like I treat her like a real friend. Like, I read about friendships all the time, and none of them treat each other as badly as I treat Yui. Like, they make things for one another, they hang out together, they don't try and kill themselves in front of one another. I just do everything wrong and I just don't understand _why_ anyone wants to be friends with me."

Ahsoka took a moment to process what Azusa had said, and then responded sincerely, but carefully.

"Azusa, you are a better person than you think you are. You try and treat people as best as you can, despite you having your own problems that you must deal with. You help others before you help yourself, and while I don't agree with that trait, it's _definitely_ not a bad one to have. Azusa, you are a very caring and selfless person, and that draws people to like you. You might not think that you're helping them, but your very presence is soothing to those around you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Alright, I'll explain what I mean, it comes in two parts though. Ok, so firstly, you're just a nice person to be around, you aren't a horrible bitchy person that gossips behind people's back, and you try to treat everyone as nicely as you can, which as I said, draws people to like you. Secondly, and I don't think you even know about this, but Togrutan half-castes are blessed with auras."

"What do you mean? Blessed with auras?"

"Yeah, Togrutan half-castes are able to manipulate the emotions of others around them just by being there. When you're happy, others are happy. When you're sad, others want to help you. This makes you a very attractive person to be around, because you either make others feel good by proxy or make them feel good when they help you, which then makes them feel good by proxy. It's a circle of positivity. Heck, right now, I'm being affected by it."

"So, I'm fucking with people's emotions and I can't turn it off?"

"No. You're positively influencing others, not 'fucking with their emotions'. Azusa, your presence is intoxicating, in a good way."

Azusa took what Ahsoka had said in, and was unsure how she felt about it all.

"I guess I'll keep that in mind?" the twin tailed Togruta mumbled.

"I'm sorry if I've offended you somehow!" Ahsoka hurriedly responded, afraid that she might have been too rude in her description.

"No, you're alright Ahsoka," Azusa responded, a slight smile on her face. "I think I understand now, I'm feeling a bit better because you're helping me, and I can just _feel_ that you're feeling the same way."

"Yup! You're seeing your powers in action. I imagine that having the force as your ally makes this much easier to control too. Azusa, I suspect that you will be able to fully control this ability, which is something that no Togruta has ever done before.

"Wow, that's insane. Nobody has mastered this ability before?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"I might have to be the first one then," Azusa said, a slight smile on her face. The two Togrutas chuckled together, excited to discover this power and looking forward to where it takes Azusa.

"Anything else I can help you with? It's only an hour or two until sunrise, and I do need to head to my room soon if I want _any_ sleep before getting yelled at by my master." Ahsoka responded, not quite realizing what she said had come off as rude. "No-not that I didn't enjoy talking with you!"

"It's ok Ahsoka!" Azusa chuckled, knowing that they were both fatigued and needed rest. "But there is one more thing I want to say."

"Shoot it at me Azusa."

"I think I might be in love with Yui."

Ahsoka stopped for a second, her face suddenly got serious.

"Azusa, are you sure?"

"I don't know, but I think I might be."

"Azusa, while I'm happy for you, you do know it's forbidden for a Jedi to form any attachments, right?"

"I know Ahsoka… That's my problem."

"Oh dear…" Ahsoka took a deep breath. "Ok, I promise I won't tell anyone, not a soul, until we figure this out, ok?"

"Thanks, Ahsoka."

"Look, I have nothing against relationships, in fact, I think you and Yui would make a great couple, but as a Jedi, I can't encourage it." Ahsoka paused, before lowering her voice. "But as a Togruta, who believes that you are a miracle and a gift, and as a friend of you, that want's the best for you… I want you to go for it."

"Thanks, Ahsoka, I'll keep you updated then." Azusa said a smile on her face.

"Alright, sounds good. I'll be off then, it was good to chat with you Azusa, we should do this more often."

"Agreed, goodnight Ahsoka." Azusa said as she climbed the ladder to her room.

"Night Azusa."

 ***.*.***

It was early in the morning on Coruscant, and Jedi Master Plo Koon was already up about. Not only had he been woken up earlier than anticipated due to Azusa apparently going missing, causing him to have barely any sleep, today, his class would be going through a pivotal moment in their training. They were constructing their lightsabers.

The Jedi Master sighed.

"Soon, they will be apprenticed to their own masters, and sent off to fight in this bastardly war." The Kel-Dor Jedi mumbled under his breath. He knew that the time would come that he would have to dismiss his students, but he didn't feel ready for it.

Perhaps, more specifically, he didn't feel like _they_ were ready for it. But that wasn't for him to decide, that was for the council to decide. The council would assign them their masters, and they will be long gone from Coruscant.

 _Some of my students have already had Masters approach them and offer them an apprenticeship. My good friend Kit Fisto is thinking that young Yui Hirasawa would make a worthy apprentice._ Plo thought to himself as he dressed in his traditional brown Kel-Dor robes. _But I'm worried about Azusa. Little Azusa, who I have raised and mentored, nobody wants to take her as an apprentice. I've offered, but the council declined my offer personally._

The Jedi Master punched the wall. It was rare for a Kel-Dor to show aggression, let alone a Kel-Dor Jedi, but Plo had been offended personally. _I raised that girl, she trusts me, I trust her. She has flourished in my class and has started to become friends with other people. For fuck's sake, I introduced her to Yui and Ritsu, who are now her best friends. If anyone knows what's best for Azusa, it's me._ Tears began welling underneath the Kel-Dor's protective mask.

The Jedi Master took a moment to calm down and address the facts. A Jedi cannot form any attachments, and the word of the council is final. Azusa would not be apprenticed to him, and maybe not apprenticed to anyone at all. Plo heard the door behind him open.

"You know, the council also says that a Jedi is supposed to be compassionate, and to do what's right." The voice of a young man spoke up and entered the room.

Plo turned around to face the uninvited guest. "Master Skywalker, I didn't summon you to my chambers, why are you here?"

"Oh, but you did. Your conscious is ablaze, it's like a beacon. I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

"Thank you, but I'll be fine." Plo said, turning his back to Skywalker and facing the window.

"You're worried about Azusa, aren't you?" Anakin said, knowing all too well what Plo was feeling.

The Kel-Dor sighed and admitted something he didn't want to acknowledge.

"Yes, I am worried about my little Azusa."

"I heard your thoughts, Obi-Wan told me that the council wouldn't let you take her on as an apprentice, but I never knew you felt so, strongly, about it."

"You didn't barge into my room to judge me, did you?" Plo responded, warning Skywalker to watch his place.

Anakin took a step back, and put his arms up in in a calming gesture as if asking for a chance to explain what he had meant. "Nonono, I'm sorry I've offended you Master Plo. I understand how you feel, I feel the same way about Ahsoka. If the council told me I wasn't allowed to be her Master anymore, I would fight their request with every fiber of my being too."

"It's more than that, Skywalker," Plo muttered under his breath. "That girl is like a daughter to me, I know her better than any other Master at the temple, but the council refuses to allow me to train her, and I'm worried that no other Master will take her on."

Skywalker paused for a moment to ponder what the experienced Master had said. "If she _really_ is like a daughter to you, you will do what's right for her and ensure the best for her. I'll get Obi-Wan to help us out, perhaps his influence might sway the opinions of the council."

"Thank you Skywalker, I appreciate your concerns, but I trust that all will be as The Force wills it, and that The Force will do what's best for both of us."

Skywalker walked up to Plo and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Look, I'm worried about Azusa too, and you for that matter. If there's anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to reach out to me Master Plo. I want to help."

Under his protective breathing mask, Plo allowed himself a small smile.

"Thank you Skywalker, it warms my heart that I'm not alone in my concern for little Azusa."

"Absolutely, Master Plo. I worry about her and Yui, and their friendship." Anakin paused for a second to choose his words. "They're good friends, don't get me wrong, heck, they're practically made for each other, but they aren't very good at communicating to one another. They have problems and insecurities they need to talk about, but they can't bring it up to each other. I hope that they can resolve their problems."

Anakin walked over to the far side of the room, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I have noticed that too, Skywalker. Don't worry, I am keeping a watchful eye on them. They are, after all, my students." Plo responded, his tone sounding rather grim. "Now if you wouldn't mind, I've got a class to prepare for, and meditation to begin."

"Of course, Master Plo. I'm sorry to have intruded." Anakin apologized as he walked to the door.

"Apology accepted, Skywalker. We will talk about this later, that I am sure about."

"I look forward to it, Master Plo." Skywalker said as he left the chambers and closed the door behind him.

Plo was alone, again.

The experienced Jedi sat down on his meditation mat and broke down in tears.

 _I must protect that girl, at all costs._

 ***.*.***

Azusa was tossing and turning in her sleep, restless and unable to be calmed down. The twin tailed Togruta had gone to sleep in the very early hours of the morning and had only been asleep for 30 minutes before she started kicking about and getting restless. Inside the Togruta's head, flashes of green and blue danced across what appeared to be a long dark hallway, leaping around and dancing as if it was an elaborate performance to be witnessed by the force itself. Suddenly, the green and blue clashed and disappeared, leaving only a voice in her head.

 _I want to see you suffer, Nakano…_

Azusa jolted upright. That wasn't just a dream, she knew that voice. It was a voice she had heard before, but she couldn't for the life of her place it. It was all so cryptic, at first, it was all dark, then a flash of solitary green illuminated the area, but there was no cause of the light in sight. On the other side of the room, if you could even call it that, a trio of brilliant blue and another green light flashed into existence, and rushed the lonely green spark on the other side of the room.

 _What could it mean?_ Azusa thought to herself, rubbing her head trying to figure it out. Was it merely a vision, a metaphorical conflict inside of her, or was it something more sinister? _It didn't seem like a metaphor, but I don't know… The force works in mysterious ways, perhaps I ought to talk to Master Plo about it. He'll know what to do. For now, I'll treat this like a nightmare._

Azusa nodded to herself in confirmation and got out of bed. She was groggy, having barely any sleep and gotten up early due to her nightmare. She trudged over to her bathroom and got undressed. Azusa hated having to shower, not because she disliked water, but because she disliked herself. Azusa didn't think she deserved to have the form of a Togruta, and having to see her naked body for herself made her feel, uneasy. Azusa folded her clothes and inserted them into the steam cleaner, hoping that by the time she was ready to leave her clothes would be clean and dry, she hated wearing the traditional robes, they were far too uncomfortable. _Oh well_ , Azusa thought to herself, _if I have to, then I will._

The Togruta stepped into the shower and began to reflect on her nightmare, hoping the warm water would cleanse the doubt from her mind. As Azusa absentmindedly washed her hair and body, she remembered something, a detail that could prove crucial to what her nightmare was about. It wasn't much, but she had remembered something that was said in the dream. It was her own voice, pleading.

"Why are you doing this? What's wrong with you?" Azusa said out loud to herself, making sure the voice she heard was, in fact, her own. She was startled when she realized that it was indeed her voice. She had said that.

 _Or maybe, I'm_ _ **going**_ _to say that…_

"A premonition? But of what?" Azusa mumbled, still confused and groggy.

The Togruta finished her shower and wrapped herself in a towel. Even though she lived alone in her quarters, and her room was upstairs from the general living area, she had to have _some_ modesty. Azusa climbed down the ladder to her kitchen and made herself a cup of tea and some toast. Remembering Yui's obsession with jam toast, Azusa thought it was about time she tried some for herself, getting out the jar that Yui had given to her personally. She chuckled at the label, which had a cute message scribbled over it. "Dear Azunyan. TOAST! =(^.^)=".

"Oh Yui, you're never one for seriousness, are you?" the Togruta smiled as she spread the Jam on her toast. Taking her breakfast back upstairs so she wasn't walked in on, which she noticed was something that the Jedi do far too often, Azusa decided to focus on today instead of her nightmare. _Lightsabers. We get to build our lightsabers today!_ Azusa thought to herself excitedly.

Azusa had been preparing for months. She already had her parts in mind, and a list of course, she knew all the customizations she wanted, the blade length controls she desired, and of course, the way it was going to look.

Most importantly though, Azusa had her lightsaber crystals. When they went to Ilum to find their crystals, some of the Jedi had found two crystals which had bonded to them. Master Plo had explained that when the galaxy was in dire straits, the caves of Ilum would occasionally offer up more than one crystal to those it perceived as worthy. Master Yoda, who accompanied them as a guide, had explained that the planet Ilum was a planet that was very attuned to the force and that sometimes, the ice caves on the frozen world would even predict the future! Azusa figured that the planet had sensed they were coming and who in the class were either worthy of a second crystal or would find themselves in the need of one in the not too distant future. Azusa had been one of the lucky few, gifted by the cave with a pair of beautiful crystals, clearer than glass. The Grand Master Yoda had explained to her that crystals wouldn't take on their color until the Jedi they were bonded to had built them into their lightsaber via meditation.

Azusa wasn't the only one to get two crystals though, a few members of her class and the other class traveling with them had been fortunate enough to get two, Ritsu had also been gifted with a pair, along with Yui. Azusa figured that Ritsu would need two as she fought best with two short blades, one for each hand, but she hadn't figured out why Yui needed two. _Maybe Yui will lose her first lightsaber? That sounds like something she'd do…_ Azusa thought to herself, almost disappointed in how well she knew the airheaded brunette.

Azusa sighed and began looking over her sketches for her lightsaber. It was the lightsaber had seen in her dreams and meditated on, and she couldn't wait to build it. _Not yet, that comes later today._ Azusa thought as she clutched her twin crystals resting in her hand.

Azusa heard a knock at her door.

"Yo, Azusa, you ready or what?" Ritsu yelled up the ladder, having invited herself in after knocking."

"Don't come up, I'm not decent…" Azusa responded sheepishly to the older girl.

"Azusa, were you being naughty?~" Ritsu teased. "If I go up there am I gonna find a boy hiding under your sheets?"

"No, I'm just waiting for my clothes to dry," Azusa responded, ignoring Ritsu's teasing. "And besides," Azusa continued as she went over to check on her clothes, "I thought you're supposed to wait until you have permission to enter someone's room, and not just barge in uninvited."

"Well, _normally_ that'd be the case, but today's a special day! It's not like you had a problem doing that to Yui and I last night either." Ritsu smugly said.

Azusa clenched her fist, just _knowing_ that the older girl is grinning like an idiot down there.

"You have absolutely no regard for others, do you?" Azusa snapped at her as she took her clothes out. _Still a bit damp, damn. I'll have to make do though_.

"Huh? What do you mean? It was just a joke, Azusa." Ritsu responded, sounding genuinely confused at the younger girl's reaction.

"Ritsu, do you even know what happened last night?"

"Nope, did anything happen?"

"Nothing that you need to know, and as far as I'm concerned, it's staying that way." Azusa snapped at her clueless friend.

"Jeez, Azusa, no need to be like that. Whatever happened last night, I didn't know about it…"

"Just, wait for me outside."

"Fine." Ritsu said, before stomping out of Azusa's room.

Azusa got dressed in a huff, and then snatched up her satchel with her sketches, some parts she had set aside (with permission of course), and her crystals, and climbed down to meet with Ritsu.

Azusa opened the door and was greeted by Ritsu standing there, arms folded.

"Ritsu, I'm-"

"Look, it doesn't matter, we're late," Ritsu said, turning to walk away.

"Ritsu, let me explain-"

"Don't want to hear it, Azusa."

 _I must have_ _ **really**_ _upset her… that wasn't fair of me…_ Azusa thought to herself, ashamed at how she acted.

"Hey, where's Yui?"

"She's harassing that droid they bring in to help us build our lightsabers, forget the name, something exotic."

"The droid… Do you mean Huyang?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, Yui completely forgot about today, so she isn't prepared at all, as per usual."

"Yes, I hate to admit it but that does sound a lot like her…" Azusa responded as she followed the older girl to one of the classrooms in the temple. As the two girls entered, Azusa noticed this wasn't their usual classroom, there were workbenches, tools, and shelves full of parts scattered all over the room, and on top of all that, there was a droid just hanging out on the roof, combing through a shelf of parts with his feet.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" Azusa whispered to Ritsu, who seemed to be just as confused as she did.

"I think so? We're early, at any rate, so nobody else would be here…" Ritsu whispered back, looking around the room.

"Oh, hello! Sorry, I didn't see you there!" The droid, whose voice sounded a lot like a doctor you could trust, announced from the ceiling, then with grace and finesse Azusa never expected to see in a droid, the droid jumped down off the ceiling and landed in front of the two stunned girls. "I'm pleased to meet you, I'm Professor Huyang, and I assume you're here to build your lightsabers?"

Azusa was taken aback, _this_ was Professor Huyang? I mean, she had heard he was ancient, and apparently, thousands of years old, but he didn't look like he was. _I mean, sure, he is a bit rusted and has clearly had parts added or repaired in his lifetime, but he looks nothing like I expected him to look…_

"Ahh, yes, you're a bit taken aback aren't you. I don't look quite the way you expected, do I? Were you expecting me to be a bit shorter, perhaps not as skinny? Maybe a bit more rusted, or perhaps made entirely out of spare parts? Well, young ladies, I'll have you know that _this_ droid has been around for thousands of years and will be around for another thousand before I'm through."

"No offense, professor, but is a droid _really_ the best thing to teach Jedi with?" Ritsu teased, her mischievousness shining through, yet again.

"Oh really?" Huyang responded, a sarcastic tone to his voice. "I suppose you know everything then? Do you know how to awaken the force in your crystal?" Ritsu shook her head. "Oh? Well, perhaps you know the proper way to construct a lightsaber, _without_ having it explode in your face?" Again, Ritsu shook her head. Huyang wasn't surprised. "Well, then maybe you should listen to what this old bucket of bolts has to say until you come up with a question this droid _can't_ answer."

Azusa watched Ritsu closely. The gears in the older girl's head were turning, trying to find something she could respond with to annoy the droid. Azusa could see Ritsu's expression change ever so slightly, and Azusa knew she had thought of something.

"Something you can't answer? Well then Mr. Know-it-all, what is the answer, to the ulti-" Ritsu said mischievously, before being interrupted by Azusa.

"Ritsu, don't try it."

"But-"

"It's not worth it."

"Yeah, you're right, I'm, I'm sorry professor." Ritsu said sheepishly

"It's alright, young one, and calling me Huyang will do just fine. Now that I've introduced myself to you, perhaps it's time you offered me the same respect?" Huyang said dryly.

"Oh right, my apologies." Azusa said, stepping forward and bowing. "I am Azusa Nakano, a Padawan here at the temple, my current teacher is Jedi Master Plo Koon."

Ritsu also stepped forward and bowed. "And I am Ritsu Tainaka, I am another Padawan here at the temple, and I am also in Azusa's class with Master Plo Koon as my teacher."

"I am honored to meet you both" Huyang said, returning the bow. "Now, if you would follow me, I believe another one of your classmates is in here, she's struggling to find parts that she wants her lightsaber if I recall correctly."

Almost as if the room was answering Huyang, there was a crash of shelves and an all too familiar voice chirping out "I'm ok!"

Azusa sighed. "Yes, that would be Yui alright…"

"Now, have you two at least got an idea on what you _feel_ your sabers will look like? Not what you think, what you _feel_."

"I uh, have an idea, but I'm not too sure…" Ritsu said, scratching the back of her head.

"That's alright, how about you, Padawan Nakano?"

"I've been meditating on it for weeks, Professor Huyang. I've got sketches, and even some parts that I sought out specifically!" Azusa said excitedly, opening her satchel to show the Lightsaber Architect what she had prepared.

"Very good!" Huyang said as he looked over her sketches and the parts she had with her. "Yes, I can practically see the lightsaber on your belt already! Your lightsaber will be very easy to get the parts for indeed, come right this way if you would?" Huyang asked as he walked over to the shelves and drawers and began opening them seemingly at random, yet each time he scoured the shelves or opened a drawer, he found one of the parts that Azusa had specified for her lightsaber, and then some. Azusa collected the parts happily and put them in her satchel, ready to build her lightsaber when the time came.

"Thank you, Professor Huyang! You're amazing!" Azusa said excitedly and bowed, before walking over and claiming a work bench for herself.

Over the next 30 minutes, Azusa watched the rest of her class walk in and start finding the parts for their lightsabers, she even managed to find and talk to some of her friends that were kidnapped just a few short weeks ago. After a nice conversation with Mei and Liz, Azusa tried to find and talk to Taaron. He had been awful silent since he got back, and Azusa was worried about him.

"Hey, there you are!" Azusa yelled across the room, running over to Taaron, who was grabbing parts for his lightsaber. "You alright?"

Taaron remained silent and continued grabbing parts for his elegant weapon.

"Hey, I said are you alright?" Azusa said, reaching out and tapping him on the shoulder. With speed Azusa hadn't expected, Taaron spun around and grabbed her arm.

"Don't bother me." He growled, before walking away again.

 _Jeez, someone's grumpy today…_ Azusa thought to herself, noticing that everyone was now staring at her. Thankfully, the attention was taken away from her as the door opened, and their teacher Plo Koon entered the room.

"Good morning Younglings." Plo said, bowing as he did so.

"Good morning Master Plo" they chanted back, returning the bow.

"Are we all ready to begin construction?" Plo turned and asked Huyang

"Not quite, we are still looking for some supplies, perhaps you could help the last two students? Young Hirasawa is still struggling, and could use a hand."

"Alright, I'll help Hirasawa, you help Taaron." Plo said, before walking over to Yui.

 _This is it, we're gonna build our lightsabers, at long last!_ Azusa thought to herself, unable to stop herself from being excited. _Soon, we are going to be Jedi!_

 ***.*.***

Huyang surveyed the class. They were all doing quite well, for younglings at least. The droid walked around the children that were meditating on their lightsabers, the parts flying in the air and lining themselves up for assembly. After each saber was built, he would inspect them, to make sure simple mistakes like the emitter matrix being the wrong way were fixed before it resulted in an explosion. He sighed, the Clone Wars had made everything much harder for him. Before there was a galaxy-wide conflict raging on, he would take small groups of Padawans out on his personal ship, the _Crucible_ and lead them through the construction personally, allowing them to meditate in the silence of space, and build their lightsabers in solitary, guided by him and a Jedi Master. Unfortunately, with the Clone Wars ravaging the galaxy, he had been ordered to stay put on Coruscant and has been forced to move his workshop from the _Crucible_ into one of the temple's large classrooms.

 _No matter, at least they still let me take the_ Crucible _out to Ilum to help the younglings harvest their crystals, even if we aren't allowed to build their lightsabers on the return trip anymore._

The droid turned his attention to Azusa Nakano, a most interesting student indeed. As she was building her lightsaber, both through practical and spiritual methods, Huyang had observed Azusa as incredibly attentive, willing, and intelligent. Where her prowess in the force is lacking, her planning and honesty would pull through and get her out of hard situations. He noticed however, that Azusa's honesty would often backfire, as she was too hard on herself. Azusa couldn't see any situation objectively, and it was always somehow her fault. Huyang thought on this for a second, before deciding that it is best if Azusa overcame this herself, he wouldn't be able to express any advice in a way that she wouldn't blame herself for. _Oh well, she is a clever girl, and has friends that are more than willing to help her, such as Padawan Hirasawa._

Huyang moved over to Yui's workbench, only one seat down from Azusa's, and noticed that Yui wasn't going so well with her construction. _I believe that Padawan Hirasawa has grossly overestimated her abilities in lightsaber construction, yet she seems to be managing it just fine…_ Huyang was puzzled by this conundrum, the girl was clearly just slapping random parts together, but she was somehow building a working lightsaber. _Perhaps I must lend young Padawan Nakano one of my saber kits, so that Yui can construct a more, shall we say, functional lightsaber._

Huyang moved on, observing the rest of the class as they constructed their elegant weapons, and appreciated the design variation. He saw hilts that were unorthodox, hilts that were more simplistic and easier to maintain, hilts that were inlaid with the bone of the cartusian whale, bastilian ore, or black ohnk, and he was pleased to see that they were all coming along nicely. He saw the boy they called Taaron fashioning a more rugged and jagged looking hilt, he saw one of the older students, Mei, had designed an elegant lightsaber that was mostly white, perhaps she was using marble inlays to add some nice texture, he was incredibly impressed at her ingenuity. He also witnessed a shaken and wounded Judai building a simplistic lightsaber, only utilising small grooves for comfort and grip. He saw the energetic and headstrong Ritsu building a pair of identical lightsaber shoto's, smaller blades which were optimum for fighting with two lightsabers, a wise decision indeed. He imagined that in another life, Ritsu would have made a good percussionist, perhaps even touring with a well-known cantina band one day.

His work here was done, this generation of Jedi were almost ready to be shipped to the battlefront, and he was unsure of how he felt of that. _For now, let us focus on putting together a kit to loan young Azusa, as I am fairly certain that Yui will need a backup lightsaber…_ Huyang sighed, and began assembling an arrange of useful parts, and sorting them into one of his many toolboxes.

 ***.*.***

Yui held up her lightsaber in pride. It wasn't much, but it was proof that this life she lives isn't pointless.

And she loved it. It was going to be by her side always, and help her protect the innocents of the galaxy from the evil of the Sith. Or at least, that's what it would do,

…if it turned on.

 _I thought I built it right though?_ Yui said, fumbling with the various buttons she had installed on it, but none of them were working. _Maybe I wired them wrong_ , Yui thought to herself, and used the force to nudge the wires into the right spot, without opening the lightsaber to properly resolder them. As if on cue, the lightsaber ignited in a brilliant spark of blue, before flickering out mere moments later. _Good enough!_ Yui cheerfully thought to herself, before slapping the lightsaber on her belt and calling it finished.

The airheaded brunette turned her attention to Azusa, who had just finished up her soldering, and was now assembling her lightsaber with the force. Yui saw all the parts, perhaps as much as 50, all begin levitating and spinning, aligning themselves in an almost straight line which was almost a meter long. With a flick of her wrist, the parts aligned themselves perfectly, and collapsed into each other. The parts snugly connected and fit inside each other before the various casing pieces Azusa had selected slotted themselves into place and sealed air tight. Yui watched Azusa levitate her lightsaber upright in the air, and grabbed it. Thumbing the lightsaber on, an elegant emerald hue lit up the Togruta's face. _It really suits her…_ Yui thought to herself, completely absorbed in how cool Azusa looked with her lightsaber.

Yui spotted Ritsu on the other side of the room, as her brash headed friend finished the construction of her twin lightsabers and ignited them. One blade shone a deep blue, while the other was a pleasant green. Ritsu set the blade lengths to be shorter, and clipped them to her belt satisfied.

 _Now all that's left is to show Huyang our lightsabers!_ Yui thought to herself, before going over to Huyang with Ritsu and Azusa in tow.

"Hmm, oh, hello there, young ones." Huyang said pleasantly, his droid optical sensors looking at their lightsabers longingly. "Have you come to show me your lightsabers?"

"Yup!" Yui said cheerfully, showing off her lightsaber with pride.

"Very well then!" Huyang said, delighted. The droid seemed to take real joy in the construction of lightsabers, as if it was his one true passion. Yui watched the old droid pull her lightsaber apart, scan it with some bizarre contraption that went over his right eye. The droid's fingers danced over the weapon's components, and reassembled it exactly as he had taken it apart. When the weapon was back to the way Yui had presented it, Huyang pressed the ignition switch. Nothing happened. "Oh dear, Padawan Yui, everything _appears_ to be done right, but the blade won't work…"

"Oh, one second!" Yui said, before using the force to ignite the blade manually. Huyang was surprised, but not entirely displeased with this.

"Well, it seems that for better or for worse, your lightsaber technically works. Congratulations, Padawan Yui. You are now on the way to completing your training."

Yui bowed and stepped aside and allowed Ritsu to present her twin blades. Huyang had no problems with them, and was quite pleased with how the two lightsabers were perfect copies of one another, aside from the different colours. Then, it was Azusa's turn.

"Alright Padawan Nakano, I am looking forward to seeing your lightsaber." Huyang said, his hand outstretched and ready to inspect her lightsaber. Azusa obliged, and the ancient droid began inspecting every detail, occasionally muttering things like "oh, I didn't expect that!" and "very ingenious…" Huyang seemed to enjoy taking apart and putting back together Azusa's lightsaber the most, it was the most technical and showed an understanding of lightsaber design he hadn't witnessed since Master Yoda had constructed his barely needed lightsaber over 800 years ago.

"So, do I pass Professor?" Azusa asked, Yui could tell she was a little anxious and put a hand on her shoulder in support.

"Do you pass? _Do you pass_?" Huyang said a bit in shock, in complete disbelief Azusa would doubt her abilities so much. "Padawan Nakano, I haven't seen someone pass with this quality of craftsmanship and knowledge since _Master Yoda himself_ constructed his lightsaber!" Huyang said, thumbing the lightsaber on and admiring it's simple yet complex construction. "It is a truly beautiful and elegant weapon, for a more civilised age." Huyang bowed and presented Azusa with her lightsaber.

Azusa took the lightsaber and returned the bow. "Thank you Professor Huyang, you have no idea how much this means to me."

"Oh, believe me, from the effort you put into that lightsaber of yours, I know exactly how much it means to you." Huyang responded, incredibly pleased that he got to see such an elegant weapon in his old age. "Now, I have a favour to ask you, Padawan Nakano."

"Of course, Professor, what can I do for you?" Azusa responded, curious but eager to help.

"I would like you to help Padawan Yui build a second lightsaber, because while her first design _appears_ to be safe and to work, I am unsure how long that will last."

Yui was a little offended by this, but knew that the droid was more concerned for her safety and the safety of others more than anything.

"Absolutely Professor, just give me a kit, and I'm sure Yui and I can work something out." Azusa said, before smiling at Yui.

Yui tried to hide her blush, Azusa's smile was just too much for her. _Why is she so cute?!_

"Alright then, Padawan Azusa, I suggest you take this kit that I have prepared, it's nice and sorted too, for your convenience." Huyang said, heaving a decent sized toolbox onto his table. "I will have a droid send it to Yui's room for you, not to worry."

"Thank you Professor, I will try my best." Azusa said, bowing.

"No, Young Azusa, you will not _try._ Master Yoda once said to me, 'Do or do not, there is no try.'"

"Alright, thank you Huyang." Azusa said, smiling at this wisdom the droid had just imparted on them.

"Now, you three better hurry along and go find Master Plo in the training room, there is still one more task you must complete before you are officially Jedi."

"Thank you Professor Huyang!" The three of them said excitedly, before bowing quickly and leaving the room, which still had some of their classmates building lightsabers.

"Guys, we're going to be Jedi!" Yui cheered and thrusted her fist in the air in triumph.

Ritsu and Azusa copied Yui, they all cheered and looked forward to where their lives would go now.

 _Soon, we will be the guardians, the protectors, and peacekeepers of the galaxy!_

 ***.*.***

 **A/N:** Well, that took entirely too long to write, but man, what a chapter. Ok, so, several things.

1) YuiAzu is definitely developing, despite Yui and Azusa not really wanting to acknowledge their feelings

2) Azusa and Ahsoka have become friends and will be further discussing Togrutan lore and Azusa's powers in the future

3) Holy shit Plo are you ok I'm so sorry I didn't want to do this to you but you make such a good protective father and I understand you so much

4) Huyang is a very fun character to work with, so we'll see if he is utilised later on in the story

5) Lightsaber construction, and in fact, the very nature of the force, is slightly different to the current Star Wars universe, as well as the expanded universe. For instance, crystals are not coloured when harvested, and are instead clear, with the colour changing with the personality of the crystal's owner. This means that if the owner of the crystal fell to the dark side, the crystal would change colour to reflect that. This is mostly based off of a comic for _Return of the Jedi,_ where Darth Vader is seen holding Luke's lightsaber, but the blade is red (and also coming out of the wrong end of the lightsaber, but you get my point). TLDR: The Force is now more spiritual, and less scientific and concrete.

6) Yui's lightsaber is not dangerous enough to make Huyang stop her from building it, but it is incredibly likely to have problems such as randomly shorting out, and occasionally, random bursts of energy while it's active. This is why Yui is being forced to make a second lightsaber.

Right, now that I've gotten that sorta listed, I guess I should talk about what this chapter was like for me to write. Well, if I'm honest, I wrote this chapter during some pretty bad weeks for me. They weren't bad in the sense that I got robbed or humiliated, but my brain decided to not play nice and that nothing was going to be good, no matter how good the thing was. Because of this, I found the angsty parts of this chapter easy to write, as I connected with the characters in a way I had never really done so before. I understood how Plo felt to be untrusted and to have the one thing he wants to protect taken away from him. I understood how Azusa felt, the way she thinks about herself, the way she thinks others feel about her, because I was channeling myself and dealing with that in my own life.

Um, tonally, this chapter is a bit of a mess. I apologize.

There are some small references buried in this chapter, such as the name of my favourite band, and some other things I like.  
Huyang's introduction describes him as "having the voice of a doctor you could trust". this is a not-so-subtle reference to Huyang's voice actor; David Tennant, who you may have realised, is probably most well known for his role as the Doctor.  
Ritsu was attempting to make Huyang look like a fool by asking a question that he cannot answer. In this case, Ritsu was going to ask Huyang "What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?" This is directly taken from Douglas Adam's "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", which is one of my favourite books.

This chapter is the ""start"" of the first ""arc"" of Over the Starlight. I've been setting it up for a little while, just hinting at bits and pieces here and there, but this chapter is where everything starts falling into place. Expect the next two or three chapters to be a bit more chaotic and possibly even action-packed.

I'd like to finish up by saying that I now have a Tumblr, despite me having no idea how to properly use Tumblr. When I eventually figure it out, I will be using it to post character designs, details about the universe that I couldn't fit into the fic without it being clunky and frankly a slap in the face, as well as other things such as answering any questions people might have about OtS, hopefully I can clear things up if there is any confusion with anything :). You can find my Tumblr here:

That's about it really, here's hoping that the next few chapters come out at a less atrocious rate :T


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